The ecommerce sector would grow at a rate of 10-15 per cent annually, higher than the GDP growth rate, in coming years, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said.
The minister also said that the economy will more than double to USD 4-5 trillion if it can achieve a sustainable growth rate of 8-9 per cent over the next 10-15 years.
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“Our hope is we can get to 8 or 9 per cent steady, sustainable GDP growth for the next 10-15 years. If we are able to do that, our USD 2 trillion economy will become a USD 4 or USD 5 trillion economy,” he said at an Express Industry Council of India (EICI) conference here.
With the growth in the economy, the volume of transactions on the ecommerce platform would also go up “exponentially”, the minister said.
“So hopefully it (volume) will not only grow at 8 per cent, but grow 10-15 per cent a year. That’s the addressable market that’s coming your (express industry) way over next 10-15 years. The volume is going to go up dramatically and exponentially,” he said.
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Sinha said the government is going to further streamline and digitise ecommerce transactions to make flow of goods easier.
“Ecommerce is really going to be taking off. Flipkart, Amazon are also transforming the supply chains and the notion of instead of having big malls and people coming and buying things that notion is going to be rapidly replaced by delivery system that we are seeing from Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon and so on. So the whole logistics infrastructure, because of ecommerce, is going to change,” he said.
According to a study by Assocham-Deloitte, ecommerce industry is set to cross business worth USD 16 billion by the end of 2015. The digital commerce market in India has grown steadily from USD 4.4 billion in 2010 to USD 13.6 billion in 2014, it said.
Sinha also asked the Express Delivery Services industry to prepare itself for roll out of new indirect tax regime Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 2016.
Speaking on the occasion, EICI Chairman R K Saboo said: “The industry is seeking simplification of procedures. We believe the expected GST regulations have the ability to standardise legislations and smoothen out operations.”
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