Flipkart-Walmart deal complaints sent to concerned bodies for action

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Aug 7, 2018

The Indian government has stated that the representation received from trade bodies regarding the Flipkart-Walmart deal have been forwarded to the concerned departments for necessary action.

“The government has received representations from various trade bodies urging to quote into the modalities concerning the merger of Flipkart and Walmart allegedly circumventing the FDI policy/guidelines on e-commerce,” Minister of State for Commerce and Industry C R Chaudhary was quoted as saying by PTI.
 
"The representations received have alleged irregularities in various aspects of the proposed acquisition of shares of Flipkart by Walmart. These representations have been sent to the concerned bodies of the government for necessary action," Chaudhary added.

On July 30, Parliament was informed that the government has not yet assessed the full possible impact of the Walmart-Flipkart acquisition deal but the Minister of State for Commerce C.R. Chaudhary had assured that the Foreign Exchange Management Act covers foreign direct investment policy regulations.
 
The government is currently working on a draft national e-commerce policy and CAIT is demanding that this is completed before the Walmart-Flipkart deal goes through.
 
Walmart in May had announced it was acquiring roughly 77 percent of homegrown Flipkart for $16 billion, a deal which still needs the approval of India’s anti-trust regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) and clearances from the tax authorities.