The sellers said the Walmart-controlled company has not given them any reason for initiating the process and under the guise of verifying their GST credentials, Flipkart is trying to gain access to them. Confidential GST Data“Once we share the OTP, Flipkart can get API (application programming interface) access to our data. The company can also get access to all past data since GSTIN registration,” they alleged, said a seller who has been on the marketplace for nine years.
Five sellers that TOI spoke to said the data could provide access to their annual turnover and their sales volume on rival marketplaces such as Amazon and Meesho. A screenshot of the Flipkart portal shared by sellers said, “To prevent possible location blocking, please verify your GSTIN through the OTP verification process.”
In a statement, Flipkart said the OTP entered by sellers on the platform is a one-time process to verify that the GST registration number belongs to a particular seller doing business through Flipkart and to prevent misuse of the seller's GST number by any unauthorised person. “This does not give us access to the data submitted by them in their GST returns,” a company spokesperson said.
Sellers said Flipkart has already verified their GST documents, PAN and Aadhaar details during the onboarding process. While demanding OTP verification from new sellers still makes sense, there is no logic behind instructing old sellers to go through the system. “Some sellers have given OTP access to Flipkart as they don't want their festive season sales to be affected. This seems like an attempt at data theft,” said another seller, adding that no other marketplace, including Flipkart Group's Myntra, follows such a process.
A tax expert said, “If Flipkart is saying that OTP verification is a one-time process, then probably they will do it only to verify the registration, but submission of OTP by the seller gives the company access to the data that the sellers have entered on the GST portal. The apprehensions of the sellers are not completely misplaced.”