Draft National Policy on e-Commerce

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 24^th April, 2018 while the second meeting of the Think Tank was held on 30^th July, 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 30^th July, 2018.

Gazette Notification dated 20^th 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 today.