NEW DELHI: The government is looking at liberalising the ecommerce policy to give a further boost to the sector, suggesting a possible rethink of online marketplace rules that were issued in March.If adopted, such a move could provide a boost for ecommerce leaders Amazon Snapdeal and their smaller rivals. A high-level committee has been set up under Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant to look into ecommerce, including issues related to foreign direct investment (FDI), a senior government official told ET.“We want to liberalise the sector and do away with complex regulations,” said the official. “We will look into each and every aspect of ecommerce and issues involved.”The global ecommerce market is worth $22.1 trillion, according to estimates by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development ( UNCTAD ). India, ranked 10 ahead of Brazil and Russia in per-capita ecommerce spending, has 22 million online shoppers.Total B2C (business-to-customer) sales in India stood at $20 billion and B2B (business-tobusiness) at $298 billion. The ecommerce industry in India is expected to grow from $17 billion in 2014 to $60-70 billion by 2019. The 12-member committee will submit its recommendations to PMO in two months.It includes secretaries of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion ( DIPP ), Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and Department of Electronics and Information Technology ( DEITY ) besides representatives of six states.“The terms of reference of the committee would be to examine various issues in ecommerce sector and making recommendations for further liberalisation of the policy in this sector (including possibility of changes in the FDI policy),” according to an August 3 office memorandum that ET has seen.Offline and online players have continued to spar even after the rules were issued in March with brick-and-mortar stores alleging that ecommerce companies are flouting norms and circumventing FDI laws by infusing overseas capital into retailing directly to customers, which India does not allow.Under the rules, DIPP had classified the marketplace model as a B2B activity in which 100 per cent FDI was allowed. But this also meant that a marketplace could not directly offer discounts and no vendor should account for more than a fourth of total sales.Warrantees and postsales services would have to be provided by sellers and not the marketplace. DIPP said a marketplace would act as the provider of a technology platform and act as a facilitator between buyer and seller.Such companies were allowed to provide services to sellers such as warehousing, logistics, call centres and payment collection. As opposed to the marketplace model, the inventory-based model was categorised as a B2C activity in which FDI is not permitted.Amazon, Flipkart and other online companies have said that they are compliant with the rules. After years of heavy discounting as they sought to gain market share, ecommerce companies are looking to reduce cash burn and improve their financials as investors seek returns.That has led to some consolidation — Flipkart’s Myntra unit recently acquired Jabong.