new delhi the government has decided to crack down on inflow of goods from chinese etailers who send consignments directly to consumers in india under the guise of gifts the government exempts gifts of up to rs 5000 received from abroad while the clauses original purpose was to allow nris to send gifts of low value to families back home free of customs duty it has been alleged that sellers on several chinese online retail platforms including club factory shien and aliexpress have been sending goods marked as gifts into india to avoid import duty india post which collects duty on imported goods may allow only four gifts per year to a particular address according to new norms that are under discussions top government sources told toi the move is expected to give a fillip to indian sellers facing stiff competition from their counterparts on chinese platforms advt in addition india post will set up 20 export hubs to give a boost to local sellers in cross border trade we need to help indian sellers reach global markets and that can be done through ecommerce in a very cost effective way said a source the department of industrial policy and promotion is leading the initiative an indian retail source said that chinese ecommerce websites have become popular in india as they are able to keep the prices very low because the goods are dispatched through china post and more often than not marked as gifts to evade customs duty the products are at least 5060 cheaper than whats available on indian ecommerce sites like myntra or jabong its even cheaper than sarojini nagar market you can get a frock for less than rs 500 said media executive monami thakur who shops frequently from chinese etailers the popularity of chinese ecommerce sites has been steadily rising in india for instance sheins mobile app has crossed five million downloads in india it delivers to 15000 pin codes in tier i and tier ii cities and it is handling over 10000 orders from india daily according to industry estimates similarly club factory aliexpress romwe are among some of the other topperforming chinese ecommerce apps doing brisk business in the middle east and india according to analytics firm app annie club factory more than half of whose 70 million global customers are from india is ranked among the most popular apps on google playstore advt a preliminary examination showed most of these chinese online platforms list their products in rupees while some have even held fashion shows across the country club factory had signed up bollywood actor ranveer singh for an ad and use social media such as facebook and instagram to target users several indian fashion bloggers too have dedicated online videos on navigating these sitesthey dont pay customs duties or goods and services tax gst they dont display maximum retail price mrp as is mandatory according to the packaged commodities rules 2017 amendment that covers foreign ecommerce sites doing