India is looking to create a green channel for ecommerce exports on the lines of China’s cross-border ecommerce-integrated pilot zones which offer streamlined customs procedures to promote faster movement of such shipments.
The commerce department is in talks with the revenue department to ease procedures for ecommerce exports and develop a roadmap to create a green channel for ecommerce exports and speed up such shipments, officials said.
“Preliminary talks are on with the revenue department to see what kind of ecosystem and regulatory environment can be put in place to facilitate ecommerce exports,” said an official, who did not wish to be identified.
Warehousing facilities
The plan is to develop ecommerce export zones where export clearances are done quickly, the official said, adding that such zones will be set up near airports.
The dedicated ecommerce export hubs will have warehousing facilities for easy storage, customs clearance, returns processing, labelling, testing and repackaging.
The move is expected to aid sellers relying on online platforms, including social media such as Instagram, to sell their merchandise.
“A green channel for exports could be developed with packaging, labelling and destination clearly mentioned, and scanning machines to fast-track shipments. We are also looking at just in-time clearance for these exports,” the official said.
The commerce department has studied the China model for such exports and best practices from that could be incorporated.
The move assumes significance as India has set a target of $1 trillion of merchandise exports by 2030, aiming for a compound annual growth rate of 12.2%, and cross-border ecommerce trade has been identified as a source to meet this aim. India’s ecommerce exports done through the postal and courier routes are pegged at $1.5 billion.