E-commerce to get tax refunds at par with other exports: DGFT

The ministry of commerce is in talks with regulators and other departments to put in place systems that will level the field between exports through e-commerce and traditional channels, when it comes to tax refunds, a senior official said Tuesday.

“A lot of policy tweaking is required. Most of our trade regulations are designed for business-to-business (B2B) interface but e-commerce breaks that barrier and it is a scenario where B2C interface is higher,” Director General of Foreign Trade Santosh Kumar Sarangi said.

One big issue in exports through e-commerce, he said, is how sellers can get the benefit of remission of tax and duties, which traditional exporters do.