After Walmart, Amazon Lobbies In U.S. For Indian FDI

By siliconindia | Monday, 03 February 2014, 10:25 Hrs

During entire 2013, Amazon spent a total amount of $ 3.45 million on lobbying, while such expenses have been mostly rising since the year 2000 when it began lobbying, shows the disclosure reports filed with the Senate.

The total lobbying expenses during these 13 years exceed $ 21.5 million (about 136 crore), but any Indian issue has figured among the "specific lobbying issues" in these reports for the first time ever.

Amazon's lobbying in the U.S. comes at a time when Indian government has floated a discussion paper on allowing FDI into e-commerce retail business in the country. A final decision would be taken after taking into account responses to this discussion paper.

Earlier in November 2013, Amazon had said it is 'engaging' with the Indian government for relaxing of FDI norms in the e-commerce space, saying such a move would help it begin "retailing products" as well, in addition to its current marketplace business model.

Source: PTI