In recent times, we have seen a major growth in the export and import of goods and services in India. Seeing this change, more and more entrepreneurs or startups are venturing into this area. But many jump in without weighing the pros and cons and rather than laughing their way to the bank, it turns into a nightmare experience. Image: Shutterstock So how do you know if your venture is ready to enter the import/export market? Here are some things you need to have in order. Getting started Set up First and foremost, you must have a business setup. It is recommended you open a sole proprietorship in the initial stage by taking a Service Tax registration or a VAT registration with an attractive name and logo. Obtain a PAN card for the business Once you have received the required registration, it is mandatory to have a PAN card issued by the Income Tax Department. Open a current account After receiving your business registration and PAN card, you need to open a current bank account with any commercial bank exclusively for your business. Get the Import Export Code (IEC) issued This is one of the most important requirements to get your import and export business started. IEC is required in all cases except in case of restricted or prohibited goods or services. Import Export Code (IEC) registration can be obtained by applying online at the DGFT website. Documents Required for Import Export Code (IEC): Personal PAN card or Company PAN card Applicant’s photograph Copy of a cancelled cheque from the business’ current account A PAN card is mandatory to get an IEC code and only one IEC is allotted per PAN card. Obtaining the Registration cum Membership Certificate (RCMC) After obtaining the IEC, you need to obtain an RCMC, granted by the concerned Export Promotion Councils to get authorisation to import and export, or for any other benefit. There are around 26 export promotion councils from where you can get an RCMC issued. After getting the IEC and RCMC issued, you can set up your import and export business from India. The IEC and RCMC issued is valid for all branches or business premises across India, and it takes only between five and seven days to get all the registrations done. Opportunities available with exporters The import and export of goods or services is an integral part of a country’s economy, and a country cannot grow without interacting with other parts of the world. And, as mentioned above, after getting into import and export, there are many avenues one can explore. Some of these as noted below:   Exploring online marketplacesYou might have heard about Amazon.com, Alibaba.com, Aliexpress.com, DHGate.com, and many more online marketplaces that allow an exporter to enlist as a vendor on their sites and let him or her connect with customers across the globe. This time, the internet is acting as a bridge for the exporters to export their product to customers sitting thousands of kilometres away. Exploring international marketsAs each country has unique resources that can be exported, it needs to import certain resources. You need to explore what you can export to the needy country and in exchange what you can Import. For example, if you want to do a trade in agricultural equipment, you can go for Brazil, which is the best in producing agricultural processing equipment. China is famous for electronic equipment, India’s most exported product in 2015 was gems and precious stones, which accounted for 14.7 percent of the total exports 3. Exploring the products opportunities It does not mean that if you are exporting an Indian-made product to the world, you can’t import a high demand item to India from abroad. There are several product opportunities that one can look into. Here are some of them: Leather products: India has a held a strong position from years in exporting leather products like wallets, belts, toys, and handbags, and a large number of small and medium-sized companies are already doing this business successfully.Medical appliances: India is now emerging as a major supplier of medical appliances in the world, and because of the quality and reliability, manufacturers are establishing a reputation. Some of the medical appliances exported from India are gloves, gauzes, bandages, face masks, and much more. Tobacco import: A major part of the revenue for the Government of India comes from the export of tobacco only, and this tobacco also becomes the major part of import of Indian economy. Conclusion While coming up with an idea costs nothing, executing and materializing is what will create a lucrative business. Import and export of goods and services will always be an encouraging business, and will always help in opening up new avenues for you and for your country.  

As Iran suffers from a sharp decline in exports, the minister of economy and finance has said less than half of the hard currencies earned from exports return to the country.

Since the United States imposed crippling sanctions on Iran’s economy last year, bringing oil exports to a halt, the country began to feel a huge foreign currency crunch, which sharply devalued its currency. Therefore, repatriating non-oil export revenues in hard currency can be a lifeline for the country.

Farhad Dezhpasand the minister of economy now laments that only $27 billion of a total of $61 billion from non-oil exports returned to the country in the last 18 months. He was speaking at a gathering of government officials and private businesses in Tehran on Monday, October 7.

As U.S. sanctions came into play in mid-2018, Iran instituted a system whereby payments of foreign customers to Iranian exporters had to go through a special system called Integrated System for Hard Currency Transactions, better known with its Persian acronym NIMA.

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Iran’s Top Exporter Says Impossible To Do Business

Under U.S. sanctions, foreign buyers of Iranian goods cannot use the established international banking channels to make payments to banks in Iran. So exporters have two choices; having accounts outside the country to receive payments or use NIMA.

The Central Bank of Iran established NIMA in 2018, forcing exporters to wire their hard currency earnings through a special network, not much different from the Havala (Hawala) system. It is basically a non-banking system of transferring largely untraceable money through corresponding money-handling outfits.

Once the government collects the proceeds from exports, it makes the hard currency available to importers at a lower rate than the open market to import foreign goods. But exporters have complained that foreign companies do not want to deal with such a system, and they have been losing business.

One interesting issue is that many large companies in Iran are directly or indirectly owned or controlled by state entities, including the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). What happens to their export revenues? Do they repatriate the hard currency fully, or retain some of it in foreign countries, such as Iraq, which is a big importer of Iranian goods. If so, where is the hard currency being used or for what purposes?

Iran’s customs department has not released any export data since March this year, but the figure mentioned by the minister, also gives a clue as to how much non-oil exports Iran has had during the sanctions.

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As U.S. Sanctions Bite, Iran Fulfills Only 63% Of Non-Oil Export Target

Figures published during the last Iranian calendar year (March 2018-March 2019) show Iran exported around $44 billion dollars of goods in that 12-month period. Subtracting this amount from the $61 billion total the minister has mentioned for the 18-month period, it becomes clear Iran exported $16.7 billion of non-oil goods in the past six months since March 2019.

Last year’s figures show that in March-September 2018 Iran exported $23 billion. It means in 2019 Iran’s non-oil exports have dropped by 30 percent.

If Iran exported just $16.7 billion since March and more than half of the hard currency stayed abroad, it means Iran earned a relatively meager sum of around $7 billion from non-oil exports.

Dezhpasand has also said that annual tax evasion in Iran is around $10 billion.

Lack of oil exports, dwindling foreign currency earnings from exports and tax evasion put a tremendous burden on government finances. Since last December the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has refrained from disclosing any information on the performance of the country’s budget.

But if the previous Iranian year is any indication, published figures show tax revenues between March 2018-Mrch 2019 came short $7.5 billion, which comes close to the $10 billion Dezhpasand has mentioned as a current estimate.

Iran has resorted using its foreign currency reserves in 2019, but it is not clear how much the reserve fund will last. The country also faces a problem of transferring hard currency from any foreign accounts, with strict U.S. sanctions making this a very difficult proposition.