Govt proposes to set up e-commerce hubs to promote exports in PPP mode

The government on Tuesday announced setting up of hubs to promote exports through e-commerce medium in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that these hubs, under a seamless regulatory and logistic framework, will facilitate trade and export-related services under one roof.

"To enable MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) and traditional artisans to sell their products in international markets, e-commerce export hubs will be set up in PPP mode," she said.

Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal has recently said that a regulatory framework to push the country's exports through e-commerce medium is expected to be ready by September.

At present, India's exports through this medium are only about USD 5 billion compared to China's USD 300 billion, annually. There is a potential to take it to USD 50-100 billion in the coming years.

Through these hubs, small producers will be facilitated to sell to aggregators and then that aggregator will find markets to sell.

Export products which hold huge potential include jewellery, apparel, handicrafts and ODOP (one district one product) goods.

The commerce ministry's arm DGFT is also working with the RBI and concerned ministries, including the finance ministry, on several steps to promote exports through e-commerce medium as huge export opportunities are there in the sector.

In such hubs, export clearances can be facilitated. Besides, it can also have warehousing facilities, customs clearance, returns processing, labelling, testing and repackaging.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations Director General Ajay Sahai has earlier stated that it will be a kind of bonded zone which will facilitate exports and imports of e-commerce cargo and to a large extent address the problem of re-imports because in e-commerce, about 25 per cent of goods are re-imported.

Last year, the cross-border e-commerce trade was about USD 800 billion and is estimated to reach USD 2 trillion by 2030.

A report by economic think tank GTRI India's e-commerce exports have the potential to reach USD 350 billion by 2030, but banking issues hinder growth and increase operational costs.

India has set a target of USD 1 trillion of merchandise exports by 2030 and cross-border e-commerce trade has been identified as one of the mediums to meet this aim.