Friday 14 February 2020

E-comm welcome to work within India's laws: Piyush Goyal

E-comm welcome to work within India's laws: Piyush GoyalNEW DELHI: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said while the government welcomes e-commerce companies to work within the framework and laws of the land, promises of a certain number of people benefiting from such companies can’t be at the expense of suffering of many others.

“We welcome e-commerce to work within the framework and the laws of the land,” Goyal said at the Times Now Summit here.

The minister said that e-commerce platforms are supposed to work as an agnostic platforms, giving buyers and sellers an opportunity to transact there.

“The platform cannot push buyers towards a certain seller,” he added.

Goyal said the ministry is focusing on 12-13 sectors such as textiles where India has a competitive edge to boost exports. He said that exports grow when there is both comparative and competitive edge on different sectors.

Citing an example of man-made textiles, he said the government is putting attention as over the years, India has always focused on cotton textiles, whereas the world has moved on to man-made textiles.

“We have now brought our attention to see how we can have an orderly growth of man-made textiles industry,” he said.

Goyal said he has told the textiles sector people that it has the potential to increase exports to $100 billion in the next 10 years from the current level of about $37 billion.

On being asked why is India being protectionist, the commerce minister said that protection is necessary where the country has domestic capacity.

He said that such practices also become evident when there is an unfair competition or high domestic cost of production.

“Also we are conscious that some countries give subsidies both open and opaque, due to which import sometimes become very attractive and therefore certain degree of protection is required for our domestic industry,” he said.

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