Piyush Goyal Says His Remarks On Amazon’s India Investment Were Misconstrued
India welcomes all kinds of investments that follow the “letter and spirit” of the law, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal says.
A day after stating that Amazon.com Inc. was not doing any favour by investing $1 billion in India, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the country welcomes all kinds of investments that follow the "letter and spirit" of the law.
Goyal said that some people have misconstrued his remarks by suggesting that he had said something negative against Amazon. "I was only saying that investment should come as per the rules and regulation," Goyal said.
Big ticket investments in the retail space should not hurt small traders who does not have "lakhs and crores" of rupees, Commerce Minister Goyal said during an event in Ahmedabad. "We welcome all kinds of investment. However, necessary legal process would follow if any investment is made outside the purview of law," he said.
"Our country has some rules for e-commerce industry. We welcome all those investments which comes as per these rules. However, it should not create unfair competition for the small traders of India. They do not get zero percent loans. They do not have lakhs and crores of rupees. They do business with small capital," he added.
During a statement at Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi on Thursday, Goyal said Amazon was not doing a favour to the country by investing a billion dollars and questioned how the e-commerce major could incur such "big" losses but for its predatory pricing.
"My statement should be seen in a perspective," Goyal said on Friday, adding that all countries welcome foreign investment, but it should be within the framework of the law. "Our laws says that interests of such small traders should not get hurt. Investment should be in the purview of set parameters. That is the view of me and the government.”