‘India’s always been open to doing business and will continue to be so’

Commerce minister Piyush Goyal will be leading the Indian delegation to the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum starting Tuesday at Davos. Ahead of his departure, the minister took time off to talk to Mint about the Davos summit and the controversies around some of his recent remarks. Edited excerpts:

You are leading the delegation to Davos. This year is the 50th year.

We have a very strong business delegation and we are building upon the buzz that the Prime Minister created when he went in 2018. We have built upon the fact that India offers you a huge economic opportunity, the fact that we are a rules-based democracy so everything is transparent. Now they don’t have to worry about scandals and government’s preference to one person or the other. Rules are equal for all. You have to stay within the ambit of the law and enjoy (access to) a good market.

You go at a time when the economy has slowed significantly. How will you explain this to foreign investors?

These are seasoned and experienced business persons. I am meeting CEOs of companies which are multibillion-dollar enterprises with worldwide operations. China has shown the slowest growth in 29 years also. The world economy, trade have slowed down. In that they still see India as an oasis because of the 1.3 billion people aspiring for a better quality of life. They can see that India is metamorphosing into an honest economy and that transition always had a short- term pain.

Do you think the Amazon episode will disturb FDI optics?

Not at all. We have thousands of companies operating in India within the ambit of FDI (foreign direct investment) law and rules. They all know that they have to work within the rules of the land.

There is no episode as such. All that I mentioned was every company will have to stay within the law of the land. In e-commerce in India, 100% FDI is allowed only for B2B; it does not allow business-to-seller. They are not allowed to own inventory, to have control over inventory.

After that of course, in order to encourage e-commerce companies, we brought in the marketplace model but that did not allow business-to-consumer interface. This is an agnostic platform.

You believe Amazon is in violation of these rules?

I don’t know if I believe or not but the CCI has certainly started investigating their practices. There are a lot of observations of the CCI in their order initiating their investigation. Similarly, we have had a lot of complaints of FDI violations coming in from different quarters in my ministry.

So it is not that you are choosing between domestic trader lobby and FDI?

How can I choose? Domestic retail traders are also my responsibility. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade also has to look at internal trade. Internal trade includes retail trade. So while these companies are showcasing the supply side, they are ignoring the fact that there is a huge retail side to it. Millions of jobs are being lost in that as complaints seem to suggest and some of the things are evident.

Your big message in Davos is going to be that India is open to business?

It has always been so and will continue to be so. Not a single investor has raised a single concern and I am in touch with them on a regular basis. If anybody has any concerns, I’ll be happy to share with them.

Didn’t Jeff Bezos seek an appointment with you?

Yes. But there was a scheduling conflict.

Pretika Khanna contributed to this story