‘E-commerce bill is discouraging to startups and small and medium enterprises’

Stakeholders have said that the Electronic Business Bill 2080 introduced in the National Assembly has discouraged new start-ups and small and medium enterprises.

He said that although the Electronic Business Bill is necessary at the present time, some of the provisions contained in it are discouraging new start-ups who are about to enter the market, as well as discouraging businessmen and small and medium enterprises who are already running business and making it difficult to run their business.

The representatives of Daraz Nepal, Mero Bazar, Mero Adda, Pathao Nepal Oho have jointly registered their suggestions in the Parliament Secretariat according to the section on the Electronic Business Bill presented in the National Assembly.

If the bill is passed as it is, the registration process will be complicated, many regulatory agencies will be involved, it will be difficult for businesses to list their goods on the platform, middlemen will be responsible for the mistakes of others and they will have to be liable for huge fines, and written contracts with thousands of businesses are impractical. .

Alok Subedi, the founder of Mero Adda, said that the bill made to regulate electronic commerce has come in such a way as to destroy small and medium businesses.

“In the past 3 years, we have given many suggestions for this bill at different stages, but the current bill is discouraging rather than helping the e-commerce business,” he said, “and it seems that it has been brought to hurt even the medium and large businesses that are currently operating. ‘

Social media is not included in the definition of electronic platform in the registered bill. They have suggested that small and medium businesses cannot invest in technology when a website or mobile app is mandatory to conduct e-commerce, and they should be able to conduct e-commerce through social media as well.

Similarly, it has been suggested that the provision of electronic business listing should be removed and the provision of advance payment should be removed when exporting services to foreigners from a platform operated within Nepal.

Apart from this, if there is a warranty or guarantee for the service or goods sold, they have demanded to make arrangements to facilitate compliance with the terms of such warranty or guarantee for the specified period.

There is a provision in the bill that for the sale of goods and services through electronic means, before providing the goods and services to the intermediary businessmen, a written contract must be entered into with such businessmen. They say that it should be removed in writing.

Similarly, according to section d of section 21 of the bill, it has been arranged that those who commit an offense will be punished with 2 to 3 years imprisonment or a fine of 3 to 5 lakhs or both. They said that there should be a provision for fines ranging from 10,000 to 5 lakhs instead of imprisonment.

In the bill registered in the National Assembly, there is a provision to develop and implement an electronic system-based mechanism for complaint management. It has been suggested that this arrangement should be made where it will be possible but not binding.

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