Centre Directs Ecommerce Players To List Country Of Origin On All Goods Sold By August 01

Last updated on February 14th, 2023 at 11:44 am

The Centre has now given a directive to all ecommerce companies to mention the origins of the products that are being sold to the customers in India. This has been primarily done to earmark those products that are Chinese made. The directive holds good for all e-commerce companies to list the country origin by August, 01.

Legacy items would have time till October 01. The e-commerce companies are asking me more time to implement the directive, a request that was made via an online meeting with Centre’s officials.

India is coming down heavily on Chinese made goods and is now trying to curb Chinese imports in India.

The directive will be stretched to other goods and services. According to confirmed sources, most manufactures and others doing business through Chinese imports are of the opinion that this directive needs to be implemented in a phased manner so that traders do not have to handle sudden losses and can make necessary amendments.

Under the current directive of selling through ecommerce, there was no requirement to state the country of origin, on non-packaged goods. This will stand to be altered. However, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will discuss introduction of the relevant legal provisions with the consumer affairs ministry on listing such information.

Accordingly, new listings will have to be updated by August 01 while old ones can be done by October 1.  Flipkart feels it can manage this by August 15, but Amazon needs a few months before it can confidently get the whole process of listings in place. Some smaller players might be adversely affected due to this directive. Many of them have been forced to sell online due to Covid-19 related closure of offline sales.  For them, to adhere to sudden compliance alterations might be difficult and also not economically viable.  Some e-commerce companies are of the opinion that the government should rope in the manufacturers to start with. The work should originate from their end and then sellers can comply.

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