India Post’s Postal Export Centers (DNKs) are helping small and medium entrepreneurs to increase exports. India Post has so far started this facility in nine cities of Uttar Pradesh – Lucknow, Varanasi, Pilibhit, Allahabad, Noida, Saharanpur, Nagina (Bijnor), Mahoba and Ghazipur.
Designed for commercial exports of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), this service has boosted the business and earnings of small entrepreneurs, including those operating under the One District-One Product (ODOP) scheme of the Government of Uttar Pradesh.
The DNK has received a favorable response from local businesses in Prayagraj and Varanasi in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. The scheme proved to be a boon for Ravindra Kumar, a third-generation carpet maker in Prayagraj, who was on the verge of shutting down his business, which has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Kumar told PTI, “At that time the only option was to export to the US and Europe markets, but the cost involved in exporting through private channels was high and the process was cumbersome. DNK has solved this problem for us.”
Ravindra Kumar now books his carpets for commercial export from the local DNK. After completion of the rest of the process, the carpets are taken to the Foreign Post Office (FPO) of India Post in Delhi before being exported.
During this process, Kumar does not need to visit any office and monitors the entire process online. Postal officials say that with the active participation of Union Minister for Communications and Railways Ashwini Vaishnav, the project has become a powerful tool for small businesses.
Vivek Kumar Daksh, Postmaster General, Lucknow Headquarters, said, “Foreign post offices are linked with the Customs Department, which simplifies the process of custom clearance of products. In case of any issue with customs, the matter is resolved online. Traders can solve it by looking online.”
He said, “Earlier, exporters had to visit foreign post offices in limited FPOs to file PBE (Postal Bill of Export), which was difficult for people living in remote areas. With the digital solution, exporters can file PBE online, thereby saving time and cost.”
The system has also helped in reducing the role of private exporters and custom agents, who used to act as middlemen and eat up a large part of the profits of small businesses. Parvez Alam of Pratapgarh runs a small business of wooden toys and exports with DNK. Parvez Alam said, “We save around 30 per cent of our cost by going to postal export centers instead of private exporters. We plan to use this money to expand our business.” Most of the customers using DNK are small businesses with limited technical knowledge. The Department of Posts has also deployed trained Postal Export Assistants to help artisans and MSME exporters.
