80% jump in complaints against e-commerce firms
The growing market for e-commerce companies in India has led to a manifold growth in the number of complaints received against such companies in the last three years. According to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, there has been an almost 80% growth in the number of complaints filed with the National Consumer helpline. From over 13,500 complaints against e-commerce companies in 2014-15, the number of complaints has reached to over 50,500 complaints during 2017. Complaints against e-commerce companies regarding late delivery or non-delivery of ordered products were the highest in 2016. Complaints regarding delivery of defective products or wrong products comprised almost 26% of the total complaints received.
Complaints regarding selling of duplicate products were also one of the major concerns received with the consumer helpline number last year, and accounted for nearly 10% of the total com- plaints. Legal experts and consumer rights protection groups have raised concerns over the lack of a regulatory body for the e-commerce websites, leading to the rising number of complaints against these websites and companies in India.
Nirmal Chaudhury, national vice- president of Consumer Rights Organisation, told The Sunday Guardian, “Most of the complaints are about fake or wrong product delivery and sometimes about non- refund or late refund for returned products. The problem is increasing because when people purchase online from e-commerce companies, they only have a customer care number or email ID to complain, unlike a physical retail store where you can hold a person accountable. So here the consumer directly complains to the consumer helpline. Moreover, people are still unaware of the consumer protection laws in India and consumer courts are not that active and fast here, thus leading to the rising number of cases.” Some also believe that the rising number of complaints is due to the increasing number of e-commerce companies in India. Rohan Mahajan, advocate and founder of Lawrato, a law firm, said, “On- line shoppers do not know where exactly to go to for redress of their complaints. In practice, most of e-commerce giants try to solve the problem at their level once the complaint is received. The lesser known companies are the ones that default most of the time.” However, C.R. Chaudhury, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, has told Parliament that the government is working towards bringing some regulation to regulate the e-commerce companies in India. A former senior journalist who has served as a Cabinet minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government is likely to be sent to the Rajya Sabha as one of the three candidates from Delhi by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), sources aware of the development told The Sunday Guardian.
The tenure of the three existing Rajya Sabha members from Delhi—Janardhan Dwivedi, Parvez Hashmi and Dr Karan Singh, all from the Congress—is ending on 27 January 2018. The three had started their term in January 2012.
This individual, when contacted for his response, said that it was all speculation and requested his name to be kept out of the report.
The former journalist in question, a winner of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, served in the Upper House twice in the past, once from 19982004 and then again in 2004-2010. During his first stint, he held the charge of two very crucial ministries in the Cabinet of Atal Behari Vajpayee.
However, he has now established himself as one of the most vocal critics of the policies of the present NDA government, terming demonetisation as the “biggest money-laundering scheme ever”. According to him, it helped people to convert black money into white. He has said “note ban” was responsible for India’s economic slowdown. .
Another much talked about policy of the present government, the GST, too had come under attack from him. He said that the announcement of GST was like an “event management” exercise.
Sources said that this individual, whose credentials as a journalist and expert on government policies was well known, has emerged as a vocal anti-government voice and his likely presence in the Rajya Sabha will attract much attention when he takes on the policy of the present government as an AAP member.
“He is taken seriously when he speaks and since he has been around in the system, he knows the facts and how things work. If he is sent as a representative of the AAP, the AAP, which has so far failed to make any impression in the Lok Sabha, where it has four MPs, will get a strong voice speaking on the behalf of Kejriwal who wants to emerge as the ‘people’s choice’ in the 2019 general elections,” a source who is familiar with the development said.
The notification for the Rajya Sabha polls will be issued on 29 December and the last date for nominations is 5 January 2018.
The AAP is expected to announce the name of the candidates by early next week and among the names that are doing the rounds are AAP leaders Sanjay Singh, Ashish Khetan and former TV journalist Ashutosh.