After releasing a set of clarifications restricting the scope of foreign-funded ecommerce players, the government on Thursday said it will soon release a draft policy for the sector in the coming weeks.

“We are working on a draft ecommerce policy that will be released shortly,” said a senior Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) official, reequesting anonymity.

One of the issues that are being discussed included the need of a regulator for the ecommerce sector. “DIPP has certain views on the issue of a regulator. But there are counter views. Discussions are still on,” said the official.

The ecommerce policy was originally being formulated by the department of commerce but the move was put on hold after the proposed provisions were found to be too restrictive. This included a sunset clause for deep discounts.

Interestingly, many other provisions proposed in the ecommerce policy prepared by the commerce department got reflected in a set of clarifications that was released by DIPP on Wednesday. This included prohibition on selling products of group company vendors and restrictions on influencing prices of products in an arbitrary manner.

The government on Wednesday tightened rules for ecommerce companies such as Flipkart and Amazon, barring them from selling products of businesses in which they have a stake and laying down new conditions for sale of goods on their platforms.

While foreign-funded ecommerce players maintain that the new norms will kill the industry the government said that the latest policy measures will promote fair play. “We want to ensure a pure FDI funded ecommerce marketplace that is fair to all vendors,” added the official.

First Published:Dec 27, 2018 7:30 PM IST