The Commerce Ministry is working with the Department of Revenue to facilitate faster clearances and with the RBI to ease the realisation of forex for e-commerce exports.
The government of India on Thursday inked a Memorandum of Understanding with Shiprocket—an e-commerce logistics partner—to build capacity on the ground in 16 districts as part of its aim to boost e-commerce exports in the country.
As part of its efforts to promote e-commerce exports, the Commerce Ministry is working with the Department of Revenue on developing dedicated e-commerce export zones to enable faster export clearances, Director General of Foreign Trade Santosh Sarangi told the media on Thursday.
The ministry is also in talks with the RBI to facilitate policies relating to the realisation of foreign exchange, he said.
E-commerce export happens through different modalities and to aid models in which warehousing is being done, the ministry is in talks with the RBI for a more flexible time frame for foreign exchange realisation, he said.
“In normal B2B, they have a policy that foreign exchange realisation has to happen within 270 days. But for e-commerce, it would require a slightly different ecosystem. So, we are working with RBI to bring in flexibility in this payment realisation,” Sarangi said.
In terms of modalities, he said, “One could be where they are exporting directly to consumers; another modality could be where they are warehousing in a place outside and that gets sold maybe over a period of one year. So, a consignment which is leaving your territory but staying in a warehouse outside for a longer period would obviously require a longer time frame for the bank realisation certificate…”
India is working with multinational and Indian e-commerce players to expand their participation, Sarangi said.
This follows an MoU with Amazon in November, which aimed to enable MSMEs to sell their ‘Made in India’ products to its customers and build on the ‘Districts as Export Hubs’ initiative.
Sarangi also said that the government was in talks with other popular online platforms like Walmart, Shopclues and eBay.
At the same event, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said, “The approach of the entire promotion of e-commerce around the world is to leverage (on) India’s traditional areas like processed foods and Indian agri-goods, which have traction and demand abroad, particularly among the diaspora.”
The promotion of exports through e-commerce was also part of India’s foreign trade policy, which aims to increase merchandise exports to a quantum of $1 trillion by 2030, he said.
Goyal said that India can leverage its potential in areas like spices, handloom, handicrafts, textiles, footwear and other Indian products so that these products can be a part of consumer spending in other parts of the world.
“…and e-commerce will be the natural bridge (sethu) to connect our India’s MSMEs, craftsmen, artisans… and industry to the rest of the world,” he said.
