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IT Act may be amended to boost e- commerce [Mail Today (India)](Mail Today (India) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) THE government has drawn up plans to amend the Information Technology Act, 2000, to remove legal hurdles in e- commerce transactions and give further fillip to the fast- growing online shopping market in the country. Under the proposed Communications Convergence Bill, the government intends to modify the IT Act to provide legal recognition to transactions carried out using electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication, a senior government official said. The government will draft a set of globally acceptable rules to increase the legal predictability for e- commerce and adopt the United Nations General Assembly's ( UNGA) recommended Model Law on Electronic Commerce ( MLEC), the official explained. According to UN Commission on International Trade Law, MLEC seeks to enable and facilitate transactions done using electronic means by providing governments with internationally acceptable rules aimed at removing legal obstacles and increasing legal predictability for e- commerce. The law is intended to overcome obstacles arising from statutory provisions that may not be varied contractually by providing equal treatment to paper- based and electronic information. Such equal treatment is essential for enabling the use of paperless communication thus fostering efficiency in international trade, according to the UN Commission. The government has already constituted a committee to develop a conceptual framework forthe Bill, which was originally drafted in 2000 under the National Democratic Alliance government. The Bill was shelved due to differences between the telecom and the information and broadcasting ministries on bringing the broadcasting sector under the ambit of a super- regulator. The Department of Telecom is likely to finalise the draft Bill before the Winter Session of Parliament. According to telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the national optical fibre network will lead to an explosion of e- commerce in the country. (c) 2014 India Today Group. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |