India not against online retailers, but only wants fair play: Piyush Goyal

A day after he slammed e-commerce platforms for predatory pricing, commerce minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday clarified that the government is not against online retailers but only wants fair competition.

“Online commerce has tremendous benefits, and the country only desires fair play,” Goyal said. “What the government desires is fair play (from online platforms like Amazon) and honesty towards the customer and to ensure that Indian merchants also have a fair chance to compete against such online businesses.”

The minister was speaking at an event in Mumbai.

Goyal also clarified that the government wants to encourage online growth and does not intend to stop online.

“We want to invite online platforms to serve all of you online, which has tremendous benefits,” he said, adding:”Online platforms have the benefit of speed; it gives you comfort to buy from home.”

Goyal’s clarification comes a day after the minister slammed large e-commerce firms such as Amazon and questioned their business model, “which has been affecting small businesses in the country.”

Amazon particularly drew flak from the minister, who said that its billion-dollar investment in India “is not a cause for celebration, as it is merely compensating for the losses incurred due to predatory pricing.”

He said that when Amazon says that it is going to invest a billion dollars in India, “we all celebrate and forget the underlying story that the billion dollars did not come in for any great service or investment to support the Indian economy.”

“You are stating that they (Amazon) made a billion-dollar loss in their balance sheet that year. They have to fill in that loss,” Goyal said, adding that “if you (Amazon) make ₹6,000 crore losses in a year, it smells of predatory pricing.”

Goyal was likely referring to the claims made by the Confederation of All India Traders in 2021, when the trader association said Amazon paid $1.2 billion towards legal expenses during FY19 and FY20, Indian media reported.

The e-tailer had then denied the reports claiming that its legal costs formed a small part of the overall expenses, while clarifying that it had incurred ₹1,967 crore in total legal and professional expenses in FY20.