‘Exporters are buried in paperwork’: Factory owner urges Modi govt to streamline trade process 

Rajan Bhosale, entrepreneur and Director at Topsail Appliances Pvt Ltd — a home appliances manufacturer focused on exports — has raised concerns over the cumbersome paperwork Indian exporters are required to manage, calling it a “major hurdle” for manufacturing-led growth. 

Speaking about his experience in a podcast, Bhosale said, “To export a single container, we need to generate at least 17 to 18 documents.” These include commercial and tax invoices, e-way bills, insurance papers, declarations, and more. He questioned the need for this redundancy, noting that “if the customer only needs an invoice and packing list, then why do we need so many documents?” 

Comparing the process with China’s streamlined system, Bhosale added, “There, a vehicle can leave the factory with just two blank papers. Here, the same process takes as much time as it does to load the entire container.” 

Bhosale also pointed out the added cost of hiring staff solely to handle export documentation. “It’s not just time-consuming — it’s expensive. A mistake in the paperwork can even halt GST processing, so every document needs to be double-checked,” he said. 

He urged the government to consolidate the documentation process into fewer, simplified forms. “If this reaches Modi ji, my request to him is to solve this one issue. Exporters bring in dollars for the country. We are strengthening the economy and we deserve a more efficient system.” 

Highlighting Bhosale’s experience, Mohandas Pai, chairman of Aarin Capital and former Infosys CFO, tagged PM Modi on X (formally Twitter) and wrote, “For our PM @narendramodi We need to reduce the documentation for exports. Need big reforms, reduce suffering of business @nsitharaman @FinMinIndia @PiyushGoyal @PMOIndia very difficult to get fast to 10tr$ with policies fit for 1 tr$ India will lag behind without big reforms.”