Walmart Had Good Dialogue With Government On Policy

Amidst policy interventions by the government on FDI norms of e-commerce companies and continuing protests by the CAIT, an association of offline retailers, over alleged violation of regulations by the online platforms, an official with retail giant Walmart said on Monday that the company has had a "good" dialogue with the government and will continue its talks with Centre.

Speaking to reporters here, an official with the company said that it got to know the point of view of the government on the policy issues and that Walmart would make the areas of its concern clear to the government.

"We had a good dialogue with the government on the key policy issues and will continue to have that dialogue and make the areas of our concerns clear," said the official.

Both the e-commerce majors, Walmart-run Flipkart and Amazon, have been facing criticism and protests by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) for offering "deep" discounts and alleged violation of FDI norms.

With an aim to ensure regulatory compliance by online marketplaces, the government last week amended the Foreign Exchange Management Act to make it mandatory for e-commerce players like Amazon and Flipkart to a submit foreign direct investment (FDI) policy compliance report by a statutory auditor by September 30 each year.

Both the companies have maintained that they are in full compliance with the regulations.

The two platforms were initially affected by the FDI norm change introduced by the government. However, they have made structural changes to stay in compliance, industry sources said.

Online marketplaces had earlier sought an extension to the September 30 deadline for the current year, as they took time to streamline their business and get it assessed after the latest FDI guidelines took effect in February. The government, however, did not accept the request.