PACT, CAIT and ITAO come down heavily on online traders

The confederation body of 13 district associations of Punjab and Chandigarh, PACT (Punjab Association of Computer Traders) had called for a "Purchase Bandh" on November 4th, keeping in mind the interests and the concerns of IT trade in the region. The objective of the Bandh is to have a consensus among all the national association presidents to push the government to come up with an online policy. It also wishes to seek support at the national level to put pressure on vendors to come up with a concrete solution to curb the online price parity that still continue to persist.
The Bandh happened to open new frontiers of cooperation as 7 non-member cities joined the agitation to support the Association. PACT’s call for a Bandh was followed by similar agitations by Confed-ITA and associations from Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. 
Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has also launched a similar nationwide movement to attract attention of the Government, demanding the Government to form a Regulator and Laws & Rules to govern e-commerce business in India. Unrealistic prices, unfair competition, unhealthy business practices, predatory pricing have damaged the business of offline market to the tune of 35% in various segments.
"The e-commerce business in India is like an open playground where every player is free to play the game as per its own whims and wishes and setting its own Rules and Regulations, no matter how detrimental it could be either for the economy or for the rest of the stakeholders," said Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, CAIT.
Foreign funding in e-retail is nothing less than FDI in multibrand retail and since the Government is committed not to allow FDI in multi-brand retail, there is an urgent need to block any loopholes in e-retail business which may give opportunity to MNCs to enter into retail trade of India as a backdoor entry via e-retail business. Beside traders, CAIT will also rope in other sections of non-corporate sector, including SMEs, farmers, transporters, truck operators, hawkers, labour unions, cooperative groups, self-entrepreneurs and others in its nationwide movement.