‘e-commerce hurting brick-&-mortar retailers’

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 26

Senior functionaries of the Amritsar Distributors Association (ADA) raised their concern over the fact that the government was preferring e-commerce over conventional trade. They maintained that the government, with the objective of garnering more FDI, has been giving more preference to e-commerce, a move which is detrimental to the local dealers.

Members of the ADA assembled to observe its 10th anniversary here on Saturday, while Deputy Chief Minister OP Soni was the chief guest.

Anil Kapoor, president of the ADA, stated, “The government does not have any roadmap to provide employment to such a huge population of the country. However, it is hell bent upon putting an end to the conventional business mechanism of manufacturers-dealers-wholesalers-retailers. This chain offers employment to a large number of people.”

He demanded pension and mediclaim for dealers who have been paying taxes regularly for past many decades.

He said they were already highly inconvenienced with the circuitous GST format and urged the government to deduct tax at sources such as manufacturing and importing points. He said for the registered traders, tax compliance was of much serious concern than selling the merchandise.