Amazon’s Great Indian Festival Sale Dates Announced; Will Bring Sizzling Offers

Amazon India’s Great Indian Festival will be conducted between September 21st and 24th; this has been announced by Amazon on their home page.

This is, ironically, and not so surprisingly, been scheduled right in the same period when Flipkart is conducting their Big Billion Days Sale.

Of course, this is what ecommerce rivalry is all about.

However, Paytm’s determination to offer never-seen-before discounts, and Income Tax regulations can spoil the party this time.

Amazon’s Great Indian Festival Will Bring Sizzling Offers

On their home page, and subsequent interconnected pages, Amazon has revealed some interesting facts and highlights about the sale period.

Some of them are:

• The discount offer will start at 12 noon, on September 21st. But Prime Members will get a 24 hour advantage, as they would be able to buy products effective 12 noon on September 20th, which is 24 hours early.
• Rs 500 cashback if users load their Amazon wallet with Rs 500, and use it for shopping
• 1% cashback for HDFC Bank debit and credit card users; 0% EMI as well
• Amazon is offering 40,000 deals across 4 days, and promises one new deal every hour
• 500+ Mobile offers; 2500+ electronics offer; 10,000+ Kitchen appliances offers
• Amazon Fashion gets the limelight (as we discussed yesterday): Offers on 3,00,000+ styles
• Special jackpot for those first time users, who download their App: Prizes to be won worth Rs 2,00,000
• Besides, there are several product specific offers as well

On the other hand, Flipkart has already announced discounts up to 90% on various products, besides, buy now, pay later offer on some products.

Paytm’s Determined To Make Inroads

Paytm Mall, which will be conducting their debut festival sales, has already announced Rs 1000 crore mega-festival offers, which is scintillating actually.

If we compare, then both Amazon and Flipkart had spent between Rs 250-300 crore on discounts and offers, last year, during the same festival season sales.

Hence, Paytm is determined to overtake both Amazon and Flipkart in terms of offers and discounts, and the sudden, surprise entry of Paytm can actually make some major difference.

Can Income Tax Issues Spoil The Party?

As per latest Income Tax rules, ecommerce portals will be required to classify their costs pertaining to festival discounts as capital expenditure, rather than marketing costs.

And if this happens, then a lot of things will change for these ecommerce companies. To start with, they will be suddenly posting profits, and hence more income tax.

But, can ecommerce firms showcase deep festival discounts as capital expenditure and not marketing costs?

Last month, reps from major ecommerce portals have already approached Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), Bengaluru, against this decision.

We will keep you updated as we receive more details..