In this page: Market Access Procedures | Distributing a Product
Certain goods are prohibited under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992.
India is a member of the ATA Convention. Samples are accepted for exhibitions and fairs, whether governmental or private. Goods imported into India under ATA carnets must be re-exported within six months of importation. To stay in India longer than the six month period, obtain approval (1) from the importing customs office; (2) before the six month period expires. In the absence of such approval within the six month period and before the expiry of the six month period, duties, taxes and interest will become payable.
To go further, check out our service Import Controls and Export Controls.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) is the apex body for customs matters.
List of tariffs and local taxes that apply to your product on our service Customs Duties and Local Taxes.
In specific cases, the product label also has to contain:
They sell a variety of products under a single roof and at reasonable prices.
In 2021, e-commerce generated $63 billion in revenues, growing by 26% compared to 2020 (ecommerceDB). India will have 500 million online buyers by 2030, compared to 150 million in 2020, with digital spending projected to increase more than tenfold to $800 billion and account for more than a third of all retail sales by 2030.
Nevertheless with competition increasing in the Indian distribution market, manufacturers are directly getting in touch with the retailers, leading to an evolution in wholesaling. As a result many wholesalers have opted for a more vertical integration of their activity by even developing their own brand names and retailing goods themselves.
When evaluating a distributor or agent, the Indian firm’s business reputation, financial resources, willingness and ability to invest, marketing strength should be checked.
In addition, one should be aware of:
1. The long-list syndrome: The potential representative offers you a long list of foreign clients, which may be outdated and the relationships may no longer exist.
2. The no follow-through syndrome: Generally the Indian agent projects a professional image in terms of having a qualified workforce and countrywide presence. A foreign company should make sure that such an agent should not leave everything on its network and sales should not suffer due to lack of follow-up.- From 5 to 15% for regular business transactions, and from 10 to 25% for occasional transactions.
- From 1 to 4% in the case of bulk materials (iron ore or coal).
- Up to 40% in the case of medical, laboratory, scientific analytical instruments, and software products.A liaison office is not allowed to undertake any commercial activity and cannot earn any revenue in India.
The branch office is allowed to repatriate the profits generated from the Indian operations to the parent company after payment of taxes. However, a branch office is not allowed to carry out manufacturing and processing activities directly (it can only sub-contract such activities to an Indian manufacturer).
Franchising in India has witnessed a four-fold growth since 2013 and was estimated at USD 50.4 billion in 2019. The franchising industry in India is growing at 30-35% year-on-year and is pegged to touch USD 100 billion by 2024. Today, India has more than 4,600 active franchise networks and almost 200,000 outlets managed by almost 170,000 franchisees. In the last two years, multi-unit franchising has grown by over 36%. However, the Indian franchise market is still very young; the sector accounts for about 2% of the national gross domestic product (GDP). Job creation is estimated at 1.5 million jobs in the franchising sector in India.
Some of the challenges faced by the franchising system in India are:
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Latest Update: November 2023