Santosh Kumar Sarangi, Director General Foreign Trade (DGFT). File
| Photo Credit: Kamal Narang

In a bid to boost India’s e-commerce exports, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) is working with the Department of Revenue to establish designated e-commerce hubs across India to streamline the process for online export shipments.

The country’s e-commerce exports currently stand at $2 billion, compared to China’s staggering $350 billion, according to industry sources. The government aims at bridging the gap by establishing a supportive e-commerce ecosystem, they said.

“A lot of streamlining is required in this regard. We are working with the Department of Revenue to have designated e-commerce hubs so that clearance of goods happens fast,” Director General of Foreign Trade Santosh Kumar Sarangi told PTI. He said these hubs will have facilities like dedicated customs and security checks, allowing cleared parcels to proceed through a green channel at airports eliminating the need for further inspections.

This approach mirrors best practices observed in other countries, Mr. Sarangi said. He also pointed out that the e-commerce hubs will be built and maintained by private entities, while the government will oversee security and customs clearances.

In addition to expediting clearances, the proposed hubs would offer warehousing facilities, returns processing, labelling, product testing, and repackaging services. This public-private partnership aims at creating a robust infrastructure for efficient e-commerce exports, the official said.

These hubs could function similarly to bonded zones, facilitating e-commerce exports, said Ajay Sahai, Director General of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).

A report estimated that with policy reorientation, India’s e-commerce exports could reach $350 billion by 2030. Streamlining the export process through dedicated hubs is a crucial step in this direction, experts mentioned.

The Indian government has stated that it won’t enforce licensing or similar constraints on laptop and computer imports. Instead, it is establishing a mechanism to track the volume and source of these imports.

A statement from Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal was issued two weeks ago to address the misinformation about potential laptop import restrictions.

“On laptops, we are of the view that there are no restrictions as such. We are only saying that somebody who is importing these laptops has to be under close watch so that we can look at these imports. It is basically monitoring, which we are doing. It has nothing to do with restrictions as such,” Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said.

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These remarks carry significance as the government had previously announced in August that products like laptops, tablets, and computers would require licensing, effective November 1.

Explaining further, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Santosh Kumar Sarangi said there will be an import management system, which will come into place on November 1.

In August, the government imposed import restrictions on laptops, computers (including tablet computers), microcomputers, large or mainframe computers, and certain data processing machines with a view to boosting domestic manufacturing and cutting imports from countries like China. Following this notification, the IT hardware industry raised concerns.

India already has an import monitoring system for certain products like steel, coal, and paper. The licensing conditions on imports were put in place on the grounds of security and to spur domestic manufacturing of these products.

According to a report by think-tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), India is critically dependent on China for day-to-day use and industrial products like mobile phones, laptops, components, solar cell modules, and integrated circuits.

The government has taken several steps to boost domestic manufacturing of electronic items, such as rolling out the production-linked incentive scheme and increasing customs duties on the number of electronic components.

India imports about $7-8 billion worth of these goods every year.

The country has imported personal computers, including laptops, worth $5.33 billion in 2022-23, as against $7.37 billion in 2021-22.

Imports of certain data processing machines stood at $553 million in the last fiscal year, as against $583.8 million in 2021-22.

Similarly, imports of microcomputers and processors stood at $1.2 million in the last fiscal year, compared to $2.08 million in 2021-22.

In May, the government approved the Production-Linked Incentive Scheme 2.0 for IT Hardware with a budgetary outlay of ₹ 17,000 crore.

(With inputs from PTI)