Union Budget 2024-25 : FM announces to set up e-comm hubs to promote exports and establish 10-15 hubs

NEW DELHI : Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her Union Budget 2024-25 speech on July 23 that, E-commerce export hubs will be set up in the country under a seamless regulatory and logistics framework.

The Commerce Ministry’s arm, Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), has already been working with the Reserve Bank of India (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.

According to industry experts, in such hubs, export clearances can be facilitated. Besides, it can also have warehousing facilities, customs clearance, returns processing, labelling, testing and repackaging.

“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. These hubs are also kind of export-oriented units and the private sector will have to come forward for developing these hubs,” Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Director General Ajay Sahai told PTI earlier.

Recently, DGFT Santosh Kumar Sarangi said that there is a huge potential to increase exports through e-commerce medium. Last year, the cross-border e-commerce trade was about $800 billion and is estimated to reach $2 trillion by 2030.

“We need to reorient our policies to facilitate an e-commerce ecosystem and have a larger pie in the e-commerce exports,” Sarangi said, adding that China’s e-commerce exports are about $350 billion, whereas India’s shipments through online medium is only $2 billion.

A report by economic think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said India’s e-commerce exports have the potential to reach $350 billion by 2030, but banking issues hinder growth and increase operational costs.