Cross-border e-commerce gets a push with removal of cap on courier exports

In a move that will boost growth of e-commerce exports, allowing more startups and small businesses to expand to foreign shores, the budget has proposed to remove the current value cap of Rs 10 lakh per consignment on courier exports. The change will make high-value D2C exports viable and speed up clearances besides enabling exporters to ship fewer, higher value parcels instead of splitting consignments, said Vinod Kumar, president at India SME Forum. “It removes procedural landmines that kept small sellers out of global e-commerce. India becomes more competitive versus China, Vietnam in cross-border D2C space,” Kumar said. Handling of rejected and returned consignments has also been proposed to be improved with the use of technology for identifying such shipments. This will essentially reduce the fear of returns and lead to faster turnarounds. “It directly affects cash cycles and customer experience for D2C brands and SME exporters. If implementation is predictable and time-bound, this can meaningfully improve ease of doing business and export competitiveness for startups,” said Kartikeya Prakash, partner at Khaitan & Co. The govt has been sharpening focus on e-commerce exports which estimates suggest, has the potential to touch $200-$300 billion by 2030. Platforms such as Amazon have enabled scores of Indian small sellers to come online and sell globally Tanmay Kumar, CFO at logistics startup Shiprocket said the removal of the courier export cap will allow smaller sellers to scale international shipments without artificial thresholds, making cross-border e-commerce more accessible. Exporters can also send higher-value consignments without extra paperwork or costs, said Harpreet Singh, partner at Deloitte India. “While it doesn’t increase demand, it clearly improves the ease and economics of global expansion- so we can may be work a better way to pass the benefits to the customers,” added Sujata Biswas, co-founder at Suta.