Draft National Policy on E-Commerce
[Min of C&I Press Release dated 26 July 2019]
A draft National e-Commerce policy has been prepared
and placed in public domain, which addresses six broad issues of the e-commerce
ecosystem viz. e-commerce marketplaces; regulatory issues; infrastructure development;
data; stimulating domestic digital economy and export promotion through e-commerce.
The Department of Commerce initiated an exercise
and established a Think Tank on ‘Framework for National Policy on e-Commerce’ and
a Task Force under it to deliberate on the challenges confronting India in the arena
of the digital economy and electronic commerce (e-commerce). Some of the issues
that were discussed by the think tank included aspects of e-commerce and the digital
economy such as physical and digital infrastructure, the regulatory regime, taxation
policy, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), technology flows, skill development and
trade-related aspects. The first meeting of the Think Tank was held on 24th
April, 2018 while the second meeting of the Think Tank was held on 30thJuly,
2018. The meetings saw participation by senior officers of various Ministries/ departments
of the Government involved in different aspects of e-commerce, high level representatives
from the industry bodies, e-commerce companies, telecommunication companies and
IT companies, NGOs and independent experts.
The Think Tank was further divided into various
sub-groups, comprising representation at the technical level from the Government,
industry and experts with domain knowledge. In addition to the discussions in these
meetings, several written inputs/ suggestions were received from stakeholders. The
sub-group reports and these submissions further fed into the draft recommendations.
These were then presented before the Think Tank in its meeting held on 30th
July, 2018.
Gazette Notification dated 20th September,
2018 amended the Government of India Allocation of Business Rules, 1961 notifying
that “Matters related to E-Commerce” are allocated to the Department of Industrial
Policy and Promotion (now Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade
(DPIIT). Subsequently, the draft National e-Commerce Policy was prepared, and placed
in public domain for seeking suggestions/ views.
This information was given by the Minister of Commerce
and Industry, Piyush Goyal,
in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on 26 July 2019.