The concerted action taken by the Indian Customs authorities seems to have paid off. This relates to the Chinese ecommerce companies selling goods to Indian entities and shipping them by courier as gifts to evade the import duties. When the affected retailers in India made complaints, the departments concerned moved in and found it was a large-scale racket where several hundred such parcels were being delivered to the same address in Mumbai and other cities. When the Customs moved in and started imposing restrictions, the Chinese companies got alerted and have now set up their companies in India itself and selling directly through their website. At least one such website Club Factory has opened a couple of companies in India, Globemax Technology India and Globemax Commerce India.

The documents they have filed with the statutory authorities clearly show that the directors of these companies are directly linked to Club Factory.

This augurs well for practicing fair trade across the border. Apart from Club Factory, there were a few more ecommerce sites identified a few months back when the issue was raked up. It is now reported that while the traffic through Mumbai has practically stopped, the importers are still getting parcels from China and clearing them through the Foreign Post Office.

It also appears the importers had tried to circumvent the Customs by showing as if the imports were being made from Indian entities overseas to establish the ‘gift’ tag. Even this was then found out and that is when these Indian companies of the Chinese ecommerce firm have come up.

Club Factory itself has tried to refute these allegations. They say they conduct their business in India as per the country’s regulations. The issue might not be fully solved still as these Indian entities show they are importing certain low-value articles from China. Customs may have to investigate if there is no attempt at under-valuing the goods.