E-Commerce Platforms Shouldn’t Be Allowed Non-Essential Deliveries in Curfew Areas, Traders Urge Government

Offline traders in India have urged the government to not allow e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Flipkart to sell and deliver non-essential goods in the areas where curfew or lockdown has been implemented owing to the COVID-19 spread. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), that is claimed to represent more than eight crore traders through over 40 thousand trade associations, on Thursday passed on the request through a letter written to Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal. It is aimed to overcome the recent demand for allowing essential order deliveries by e-commerce companies in Maharashtra where the government brought new restrictions earlier this week.

“It will be highly unfair if the e-commerce players are allowed to deliver all kinds of goods, whereas brick-and-mortar retailers are allowed to deal only in essential commodities,” reads the letter, a copy of which is with Gadgets 360.

The CAIT also said that the selling of non-essentials via e-commerce platforms would create an “uneven level-playing field” for the traders whose shops would remain shut for compliance of the curfew orders.

“The sinister designs of these companies to take advantage of Corona pandemic is a shameful act and shows that they are least bothered for any pandemic or casualties and are more interested in spreading wings of their business on the coffin of the people,” the traders' body said.

Further, the CAIT asked how the e-commerce portals would be able to deliver non-essential goods since they operate as a pure marketplace and were not allowed to own any inventory. The traders registered with e-commerce companies as sellers won't be in a position to deliver goods due to remain under lockdown, it noted.

The letter written by the CAIT comes in response to the requests made by e-commerce companies to the Maharashtra government to allow non-essential deliveries through their platforms under the ongoing restrictions.

“Currently, we are enabling deliveries of essential products in the state of Maharashtra in line with new guidelines set by the government. However, there is learning from the last one year that urgent customer needs vary across households and it is challenging to define a static essentials list; therefore we request the government to allow delivery of all products as soon as possible,” an Amazon India spokesperson said in a prepared statement emailed to Gadgets 360.

In addition to the guidelines issued in Maharashtra recently, the Delhi government on Thursday announced the implementation of weekend curfew in the capital city. It has restricted non-essential services to limit the spread of COVID-19.

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