Amazon's investment in India to make up for its losses; not to support Indian economy: Piyush Goyal

Minister criticizes Amazon's predatory pricing in India, impacting small retailers, questions $1 billion investment motives

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday (August 21, 2024) questioned Amazon's announcement of $1 billion investment in India, saying the U.S. retailer was not doing any great service to the Indian economy but filling up for the losses it had suffered in the country.

He said that their huge losses in India "smells of predatory pricing", which is not good for the country as it impacts crores of small retailers.

Launching a report on 'Net Impact of e-commerce on Employment and Consumer Welfare in India', the Minister lambasted the e-commerce companies, questioning their business model that has been impacting small retailers in the country.

“When Amazon says that we are going to invest a billion dollars in the country, we celebrate, and we forget that the billion dollars are not coming in for great service or investment to support the Indian economy. They made a billion-dollar loss in their balance sheet that year, they had to fill in that loss,” he said.

”And how did that loss get caused, they paid ₹1,000 crores to professionals. I do not know who these professionals are...I would love to know, which chartered accountants, professionals, or lawyers get ₹1,000 crores unless you are paying all the top lawyers to block them so that nobody can fight a case against you,” the Minister said.

He wondered whether the ₹6,000 crore loss in one year does not smell of predatory pricing, as they are just an e-commerce platform and those companies are not allowed to do B2C (business to consumer) business.

As per the policy, the e-commerce platform legally can not do B2C in the country.