Former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai has sounded the alarm over what he describes as ‘harassment’ confronted by small exporters in India. This comes in keeping with Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s current feedback in regards to the nation’s start-up ecosystem, which sparked a large debate on social media and evoked sturdy reactions from many entrepreneurs.
Reacting to a Reddit submit detailing the bureaucratic maze small companies should navigate to export items, Pai criticised the Reserve Financial institution of India (RBI), the Central Board of Oblique Taxes and Customs (CBIC), and different regulatory our bodies for making compliance painful.
Sharing the submit on X, Pai wrote: “Minister @PiyushGoyal pl take a look. How can small exporters survive with a lot of documentation from @cbic and @RBI This harassment is an excessive amount of. When will we’ve got EODB? @DPIITGoI @RBI RBI simply doesn’t take care of residents. They’re a legislation into themselves with no accountability.”
Minister @PiyushGoyal pl take a look. How can small exporters survive with a lot of documentation from @cbic and @RBI This harassment is an excessive amount of. When will we’ve got EODB? @DPIITGoI @RBI RBI simply doesn’t take care of residents.They’re a legislation into themselves with no accountability… https://t.co/tiXiAF9fAQ
— Mohandas Pai (@TVMohandasPai) April 18, 2025
He tagged key establishments and figures — together with the Prime Minister’s Workplace (PMO), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and the Ministry of Finance — questioning the effectiveness of India’s “ease of doing enterprise” claims.
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‘Ease of doing enterprise is simply discuss’
Pai’s frustration stemmed from a Reddit submit titled “Why you shouldn’t strive exporting from India Vent & Rant” by a person named Limp-Query-4778, who shared his exhausting four-year-long wrestle with India’s export ecosystem.
“All of the discuss of ease of doing enterprise is simply discuss and no stroll. You’re higher off transferring to Dubai and exporting from there than from India.”
That’s how the entrepreneur summed up his expertise. A small-town businessman who as soon as processed 300-400 home orders day by day, his issues started in 2022 when he tried to faucet into the worldwide market.
What adopted was a slew of advanced, typically redundant steps — buying an Importer Exporter Code (IEC), registering on ICEGATE, making use of for an Authorised Seller (AD) code, and utilizing solely “licensed” couriers for transport.
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“Nonsensical for a 30 {dollars} export,” he wrote, referring to the disproportionate compliance prices.
Issues obtained worse when one in every of his clients rejected a cargo — and the Indian authorities charged GST twice: as soon as for the unique cargo, and once more for the returned one.
“We needed to pay GST TWICE on a cargo on which we didn’t earn a penny,” he mentioned.
By 2024, he bumped into deeper bother as a result of what he described as the dearth of integration between Customs, GST, and RBI platforms. He found that transport paperwork value Rs 50 lakh remained “open” within the system. To shut every transport invoice, he was requested to pay Rs 400 — totalling Rs 8 lakh, about 16 per cent of his turnover.
His failure to fulfill the deadline led to his account being marked non-compliant by the RBI, freezing his capacity to export.
Regardless of writing a number of emails — even attaching diagrams to clarify his state of affairs to the Commerce Minister’s workplace — he claimed there was no response.
Voices of frustration develop louder amongst netizens
Pai’s submit opened the floodgates for others to share their tales of navigating India’s paperwork.
One person commented:“There is no such thing as a ease of doing enterprise in India ! It’s solely a jargon ! All the convenience is for the massive company homes who’ve large pockets !”
One other wrote: “I’ve repeatedly saying that BoE and BoL are nightmare to settle, not due to lack of documentation, however incompetent banks and their programs. There ought to some straightforward means for small imports like digital parts and small exports,”
Another person identified how pricey it’s to make even a small transaction: “One of many largest ache factors for small companies is the prolonged documentation even for small outward remittances. The price of settling a US$100 bill can value upwards of US$200 + a number of CA signed types and docs earlier than financial institution can provoke the remittance.”
A fourth person shared a private expertise with corruption within the GST course of: “Even for getting a easy GST registration for a person advisor (speculated to be on-line clearance), I used to be requested to pay bribes. As I did not, it went for ‘in-person’ go to by babus. Once they got here, it was a harrowing expertise of countless paperwork. Once I agreed to pay, it was cleared with no additional papers!! @TVMohandasPai , my case is just not alone. No use complaining to @PiyushGoyal ! He’ll guarantee one other ‘on-line grievance redressal’! You’ll have one other spherical of bribes!!”
