A senior industry executive said this will enable foreign-funded e-commerce players to scale up export volumes out of India, lead to faster delivery timelines, more efficient order fulfilment, reduce compliance burden on sellers and enable brand building for Indian exports.
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The government’s decision to allow foreign-funded e-commerce companies to hold inventory for exports is expected to boost export volumes while reducing compliance burden for Indian sellers, said industry experts. At the same time, some have cautioned it is important to ensure enough safeguards are put in place so that this provision is not misused.
Anand Ramanathan, Partner & Consumer Industry Leader, Deloitte India, said MSMEs are likely to gain from this move, particularly in sectors such as fashion, gems and jewellery, home furnishings and handicrafts. “It will help improve access for Indian goods manufactured in the country. It will also help attract investments to manufacture and source products from India for the global market,” he added.
Sohrab Bararia, Partner, Indirect Tax and Grant Thornton Bharat, noted that this is a natural progression of the export facilitation measures introduced by CBIC earlier this year. “Together, these reforms will create a more seamless ecosystem for cross-border e-commerce, reducing operational and compliance barriers while improving market access for Indian businesses. This also provides international e-commerce players greater flexibility in structuring their export operations, which could encourage additional investment in export-focused warehousing, logistics, technology and fulfilment infrastructure in India,” he added.
A senior industry executive said this will enable foreign-funded e-commerce players to scale up export volumes out of India, lead to faster delivery timelines, more efficient order fulfilment, reduce compliance burden on sellers and enable brand building for Indian exports.
Striking a note of caution, Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, the Confederation of All India Traders, said that while the objective of boosting exports deserves wholehearted support, it is equally important to ensure that this provision is implemented in both letter and spirit. He said that the provision must not be misused as a backdoor route for undertaking domestic B2C e-commerce trade, which remains restricted under the existing FDI policy.
Khandelwal recommended that permission to foreign funded e-commerce players to hold inventory should not be done through the automatic route, but after a thorough examination of their business plans. “Inventory owned by foreign entities for export purposes should be stored exclusively in physically segregated, customs-bonded warehouses to ensure complete traceability and prevent diversion into the domestic market,” he added.
Meanwhile, GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava said: “The proposal weakens India’s long-standing policy that prohibited foreign-funded inventory-based e-commerce, making it easier for the US to argue that if inventory ownership is permitted for exports, it should also be allowed for domestic sales and products sourced globally. There is also a risk that the US will continue seeking such market-access concessions outside formal FTA negotiations, enabling it to secure commercial gains without offering anything in return.”
With inputs from Amiti Sen
Published on July 24, 2026
