Govt Likely To Release New Draft Of Proposed E-Commerce Policy This Month: Report

After resolving differences among ministries over regulatory body for e-commerce sector, the governemnt is likely to release a new draft of the proposed e-commerce policy by this month.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce is reportedly trying to sort out differences among the ministries on establishing an e-commerce regulator and its powers.

The DPIIT in the earlier draft of the e-commerce policy had proposed to set up a regulator for the sector and a law to restrict the information that firms can store, use, transfer, process and analyse and had provided for regulations on issues such as security, law and order, law enforcement, taxation and safety of individuals to enable the government to have speedy access to data flowing through ecommerce platforms that operate in the country, reports Economic Times.

The new draft of the proposed e-commerce policy was discussed at an inter-ministerial meeting on Saturday (13 March), in which the suggestion by some ministries to give the role of e-commerce regulator to Central Conusmer Protection Authority was deliberated upon among other things.

“There are differences of opinion on many issues and we don’t have a final view on anything,” an official was quoted as saying.

“We are trying to finish this so that we can release a draft in the public domain this month," the official added.