Total trade bandh on 24th November gets finalized in south

Karnataka based IT Association FiTDAK and its district member association,  AIT-Bengaluru had finalized the plan of action for combating the predatory price policies of leading online portals, which are affecting the Brick & Mortar IT Channel frater­nity, ranging from small retailers to enterprise solu­tion providers.

B. Ananda Rao, president of FiTDAK said, “IT channels and channel associations across India are desperately waiting for corrective action on the predatory pricing widely practiced by e-tailers that is really devastating the Brick & Mortar IT channel community. If the online por­tals are flourishing by the virtue of just technology revolution or their excep­tional logistics strengths, we all could appreciate. But sadly, their aggression and growth is seen only through predatory pricing by way of offering huge discounts which range between 12% to 30% to the buyers.”

Rao further added, “Yes, we assume the respon­sibility of protecting the trade against anomalies in the present business model and in the wake of OEMs and brand owners not coming forward to extend any help in the form of regulating the MOP (Minimum Operating Price) across the market place directly or through their national distributors and this Bundh will be observed State wide.”

Satya Prasad, presi­dent of AIT-Bengaluru said, “The purchase bundh will be effective from 24th Novem­ber and it will go on for min­imum 4 days, to mark our protest against predatory pricing. We are taking all our members in confidence to make it mandatory for participating in the bundh.”

Sridhar.R, secretary of FITDAK added, “We had held FiTDAK-AIT combine fellow­ship meet on 11th of this month to apprise the huge member gathering of the plan of action and entire fra­ternity welcomed the reso­lution with great relief and applause. The 24th November also will be observed as total trade bundh and even the channel trade also will close down their business establishments.”

Ketan Shah, the Secre­tary of AIT-Bengaluru joined to add by saying, “before we arrived at this eventual step, the associations across the country, including ours in Karnataka tried to bring the house in order through dia­logue with the government, highlighting the financial and taxation irregularities and submitting the memorandum to Competition Commission of India (CCI) with evidence on preda­tory pricing, holding discussions with both OEMs and NDs, we did not find the responses encourag­ing despite the fact that the predatory prices prac­ticed by e-tailers is a crime.”

Rao finally added that All India Associa­tion for IT Associations and South India IT Associa­tions are putting all efforts to see that the bundh will be observed across the country in all the states.