“The sea of people brings in money” may be the common motivation of all multinational companies entering the Indian market. Many cross-border export sellers want to ship goods to India for sale, but they are not used to the local environment. India has the most complex dual-track VAT system in the world, including various GST goods and services taxes (Goods & Services Tax). Tax), which results in the need to submit a lot of information for cross-state transportation of goods in India. For this reason, UPS outsourced part of its business in India to local companies. India is a federal country, and local states have considerable autonomy and discretion over trade and finance and taxation. Sales tax on goods sold within the territory of each state is levied by each state, and the sales tax base, tax rate and collection and management are not unified. For goods exported to India, bills of lading and manifests must have the IEC importer and exporter code and its GST tax number issued by the Indian Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DFGT). India is extremely protective of its domestic retail industry. Subject to restrictions on foreign investment in retail industry FDI-related laws and regulations, if overseas sellers do not have IOR status, they cannot sell directly online. They have to rely on logistics companies to open an Indian station account on the platform, which is equivalent to supplying goods to the e-commerce platform and belongs to the seller in the form of a store.
In terms of products, the Indian government requires that all goods sold online reflect the maximum retail price (MRP) (Maximum Retail Price) on the product packaging. ), country of origin, warranty period and other information, otherwise there is a possibility of customs detention. India’s BIS commodity standard certification is mandatory, including consumer electronics, home furnishings, auto parts and other products. There are many customs policies and tax regulations, and only special customs clearance agents can be entrusted to handle import-related procedures. The agent will provide the importer’s POA and review the KYC account holder’s conditions. Consumers who purchase products worth less than 5,000 rupees online from overseas can clear customs duty-free as personal belongings. IEC codes are not required for personal items. Only a copy of the passport or a permanent resident account number PAN and POA are required.
India’s commercial direct mail needs to solve the difficulty of KYC data collection, and usually it is necessary to connect with the platform or provide an online self-service reporting tool to the recipient. Xiaomi India’s local delivery time is concentrated within one week, while overseas warehouses need to solve local investment, importers and COD. Problems such as capital repatriation. It takes one or two weeks for express delivery to arrive in India, and 20 to 30 days for postal channels. The overseas warehouse model has high efficiency, but the trade tax rate is very high, ranging from 60% to 85%. The loading and unloading capacity of Indian seaports and the efficiency of customs are both low. When booking a space, try to find a shipping company that can provide free cabinets at the destination port for multiple days. Goods can be supervised and stored at the customs for up to 30 days. Goods that are rejected by the buyer and need to be returned usually require a no-objection return certificate signed by the buyer. In addition to Flipkart’s self-operated warehouse and distribution, India also has many new e-commerce logistics companies such as Delhivery, Rivigo, GoJaVAS, EcomExpress, Dotzot, InnovEX, FSC and WowExpress, as well as XpressBees, and Alibaba intends to build XpressBees into the “Indian version of Cainiao Network”. Another feature of India’s cross-border logistics is that its domestic business is often accustomed to being “led by acquaintances” when going abroad, and there are very few overseas Chinese in India, and there are also few local Chinese partners.