IAMAI, Nasscom urge govt to allow sale of non-essential items

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IT industry lobby group Nasscom have urged the government to allow ecommerce platforms to sell all products, including items deemed non-essential.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Sunday reversed its decision of April 15 allowing e-commerce firms to operate fully, dealing a major blow to online marketplaces that had begun preparing to dispatch orders.

IAMAI on Monday said the debate of online versus offline was an incorrect portrayal of the ground reality.

The industry lobby said opening up services will help sellers obtain liquidity and restore demand, adding that the key to “returning to normal” was fulfilling consumer demand through e-commerce.

“Preservation of consumer demand is of prime importance that will keep the economy chugging along as the country starts the difficult process of economic recovery,” said Subho Ray, President of IAMAI. “Lakhs of small sellers have embraced online channels…Allowing full operations of e-commerce is the first step towards economic revival,” he added.

Ecommerce leaders Flipkart and Amazon have said they will respect the government’s decision.

“With most of us working/learning from home, access to basic equipment is absolutely critical. Urge govt to consider basic requirements like office chairs, routers, laptops/desktops etc as essentials for #ecommerce deliveries,” Nasscom said in a Twitter post on Monday.

Nasscom president Debjani Ghosh also highlighted that many ecommerce companies had plan to operate at full capacity from Monday. “And most don’t have deep pockets to handle these kinds of reversal in decisions,” she said on microblogging platform Twitter.