Overview
- The Directorate General of Foreign Trade issued a notification on Wednesday that puts the inventory‑based cross‑border e‑commerce framework into effect and sets out registration, inventory, payment and dispute rules for Exporters‑on‑Record.
- EORs must be separately registered entities with an IEC and GSTIN, can buy domestic goods only after receiving a confirmed overseas order, and must keep export stock digitally segregated so it cannot be sold in India.
- The framework requires timely payment to Indian sellers, visibility of final sale price and shipment status, annual compliance certification, and referral of EOR‑SOR disputes to DGFT regional offices for resolution.
- Returned or rejected export consignments must be re‑exported, returned to the seller or disposed of under prescribed procedures and may not enter the domestic market; export rebates must be apportioned to the originating sellers.
- The move is pitched as a way to connect Indian manufacturers and MSMEs to global marketplaces but the FDI change will take full legal effect only after a separate FEMA notification and experts warn it could create pressure to extend inventory ownership to domestic sales in future.