NEW DELHI: In the near future, e-commerce companies operating in India will be able to export merchandise through all foreign post offices as the customs department is planning to simplify procedures for exports by India Post. Since 2016, e-commerce exports had been allowed through Foreign Post Offices (FPOs) under Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) incentives from post offices at Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi.
“Now, customs may be leading the reform race by permitting e-commerce exports through all FPOs, though without MEIS benefits for now,” a Finance Ministry statement said.
With imports and exports by post being the sixth highest citizen grievances cited under CPGRAMs, the Customs Department and Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) have been working together for last one year to liberalise, reform and align laws relating to imports by it.
According to the statement, one of the major bottlenecks in the postal system is the absence of professional logistics companies that can facilitate SMEs going global online, leaving postal logistics to third parties.
The new simplified procedure can boost to the Make in India programme, the Finance Ministry said.
To have a better system in place, the government on Friday had invited e-commerce giant Amazon and logistics company DHL to make presentations on global best practices and identifying bottlenecks faced by exporters in India.
Chief Commissioner of Customs Sunil Sawhney said that improvement in infrastructure at FPOs and leveraging strengths of postal department’s pan-India outreach can unlock massive export potential.
Customs is planning some of these initiatives after it introduced non-intrusive technologies like x-ray scanning at FPOs to expedite release of goods.
These measures are also likely to control smuggling of narcotics, as evidenced from the recent seizure of 3,00,000 tablets of psychotropic substances. “In order to strengthen law enforcement, customs will scan mail bags at the airports itself for identifying suspect consignments and contraband items,” the statement said.