Exporters Rue E-Commerce Woes

Mumbai: Persistent hurdles in the Export Data Processing and Monitoring System (EDPMS) could limit the growth—especially for MSMEs and new-age exporters, warn industry experts. It is happening at a time when India’s e-commerce exports are poised to contribute significantly to the country’s ambitious $1 trillion export target by 2030. A recent policy paper warns that unless these issues are addressed urgently, India’s digital trade momentum could stall. The relaxed compliance for shipping bills under $1000 deadline up to March 2025has been further extended up to September 2025.

Speaking to Bizz Buzz, M Narendra, former CMD of Indian Overseas Bank, says, “The charges being levied by the banks for shipment below $1000 should be either minimal or it could be subsidised by special incentive package from government to promote e commerce digital shipments. RBI should also take further steps to simplify the compliance burden for low value shipments.”

The entire exporters, banks, DGFT, Customs, RBI system should be integrated to enable a seamless reconciliation and elimination of entries related to particularly small value shipments below $1,000 so as to enable the exporter to focus on further exports rather than on procedural issues relating to exports The suggestion to use modern technology like A1 to automated elimination once shipment made is a good suggestion, he said. A recent paper co-authored by Prof Viswanath Pingali, IIM Ahmedabad and Prof Deepankar Sinha, IIFT Kolkata draws attention to how current EDPMS protocols severely erode exporter margins for high-frequency, low-value e-commerce shipments and discourage broader participation in global trade. “Exporters are required to close each shipping bill individually and pay bank-imposed closure charges, which, in some cases, exceed 50–60 per cent of the shipment value,” the authors noted.