E-comm volume in India to top $150m in 3 yrs: official

["Irfan Khan" <KhanIA@super.net.pk>]

E-comm volume in India to top $150m in 3 yrs: official

Our Mumbai Bureau 20 July

THE next millennium will be one of e-culture. We expect that e-commerce
will account for $150 m in India over the next two to three years. Every
1.67 seconds, one new user will sign up on the Net," said Ravindra Gupta,
secretary, department of electronics. Mr Gupta was the keynote speaker at E-
BIZ ’99, a seminar on electronic commerce organised by Nasscom (National
Association of Software and Service Companies) in Mumbai, today.  The
seminar was organised with a view to suggest initiatives to establish a
conducive environment for e-commerce in India. Added Mr Gupta: "According
to our estimates, the value of e-commerce is placed at $1.5 m. Out of the
total number of e-vendors, nearly 25 per cent accept payment through credit
cards." Speaking at the seminar, Mr Vijay Mukhi of VMCI said: "It is
imperative for corporates in India to understand the dynamics of the e-
commerce world." For instance, it is estimated that there are 50 m
consumers who resort to e-commerce. And they buy goods and services
electronically only twice a year. Among the e-vendors, Amazon.com is said
to be the biggest with 6 m surfers logging on to its website to browse for
an average of 20 seconds.

At the seminar, Nasscom presented a list of 20 initiatives to be taken by
the government and the industry for e-commerce to proliferate. Apart from
speedy passage of cyber laws, there was a novel suggestion on the tariffs
and taxation front. It was suggested that that the government should
provide a moratorium of three years so as not to levy any tax on e-commerce
transactions. This would also require including state governments and
municipalities as sales tax and octroi are state issues. The United States
has already provided such a moratorium.

The other suggestions included allowing private gateways to internet
service providers and allowing free use of at least 56-bit encryption
technology.

http://www.economictimes.com/today/21tech01.htm