All foreign investments must adhere to law of the land: Goyal on Amazon row

A day after stating that Amazon was t doing any favour to India by investing one billion dollars, Union minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said country welcomes all kinds of investments that follow "letter and spirit" of law. Goyal said that some people have misconstrued his remarks by suggesting that he h said something negative against Amazon.

"I was only saying that investment should come as per rules and regulation," Goyal said.

Big ticket investments in retail should t hurt small trers who does t have "lakhs and crores" of rupees, Goyal, who was here to inaugurate 'Ahmedab Design Week', a three-day long event for students of various design and architecture institutes, said. "We welcome all kinds of investment. However, necessary legal process would follow if any investment is me outside purview of law," minister pointed out.

"Our country has some rules for e-commerce industry. We welcome all those investments which comes as per se rules. However, it should t create unfair competition for small trers of India. y do t get zero per cent loans. y do t have lakhs and crores of rupees. y do business with small capital," said Goyal.

minister on Thursday said Amazon was t doing a favour to country by investing a billion dollars and questioned how online retailing major could incur such "big" losses but for its predatory pricing.

"My statement should be seen in a perspective," Goyal said here ding that all countries welcome foreign investment but it should be within framework of law. "Our laws says that interests of such small trers should t get hurt. Investment should be in purview of set parameters. That is view of me and government," he ded. If investments are t within framework of law, n legal action would be initiated, he told reporters.

minister in a tweet also expressed similar views.

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"We welcome all kinds of investments that follow letter & spirit of law. If some investment is outside legal purview, appropriate action will be taken. Our government wants to ensure that unfair competition is t created for crores of small trers and retailers of country," Goyal said in a tweet.

Goyal has stated that e-commerce companies have to follow Indian rules in letter and spirit and t find loopholes to make a back-door entry into multi-brand retail segment.

India does t allow foreign investment beyond 49 per cent in multi-brand retailing and has t yet approved any application of overseas retailers.

"y (Amazon) may have put in a billion dollars but if y make a loss of a billion dollars every year, n jolly well will have to finance that billion dollar. So, it is t as if y are doing a favour to India when y invest a billion dollars," Goyal said at Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi on Thursday.

USD 1 billion investment by Amazon.com to help bring small and medium businesses online is on top of USD 5.5 billion funding it h previously anunced.

minister wondered why an e-commerce market place model, where a firm provides an IT platform for buyers and sellers, incurring huge losses ding that it needs to be looked upon.

"y are investing money over last few years also in warehousing and certain or activities, which is welcome and good. But if y are bringing in money largely to finance losses and those losses in an e-commerce market place model," Goyal said. He has ded that in a fair market place model in a turver of USD 10 billion dollars, if a company is incurring loss of billion dollars, it "certainly raises questions, where loss came from". Goyal has said that how can a marketplace make such a big loss unless y are indulging in "predatory pricing or some unfair tre practices".

Fair tre regulator CCI (Competition Commission of India) has recently ordered a probe against e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon for alleged malpractices, including deep discounting and tie-ups with preferred sellers on ir platforms.

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