Centre to look into plaints against Flipkart 'big' sale

Union Minister of State for Commerce, Nirmala Sitharaman, on Monday said there will be no change in the policy on e-commerce retail, but the Centre would look into complaints against e-retailer Flipkart’s bumper discount sale earlier this month.

Speaking to reporters after paying a visit to the BJP state office in Bangalore, Sitharaman said there will be no inquiry against Flipkart or any other e-retailer. Following Flipkart’s ‘Big Billion Day’ sale on October 6, there were complaints such as jacking up prices before the sale, limited stock of products and website outages. Replying to a query, Sitharaman, who is also the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, said the Centre was inching closer to finding a solution to approve a legislative scheme which enables the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST). The states have been demanding for lowering the threshold limit for imposing GST and asked the Centre to specify GST compensation structure for five years. A Constitutional Amendment Bill needs to be passed for ushering in GST, she said.

“Some states have raised issues, we are close to resolving them. In all probability, we will be moving the Constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament by the end of the year,” the minister said.