The government is considering sample checking of consignments and limiting the value of imported ‘gifts’ to Rs 5,000 per Aadhaar number to keep a check on online purchases of goods through foreign ecommerce platforms and applications, especially China.This comes in the wake of a large number of online purchases from China entering India as gifts and being shipped directly to customers. Under the current customs rules, gifts of up to Rs 5,000 intended for personal use are exempt from customs duties A standing group of secretaries chaired by industry secretary Ramesh Abhishek had suggested that the revenue department examine “steps to prevent violation of existing rules to circumvent customs duties particularly by the gifting route” at its first meeting in September 2018.The minutes of the meeting have only been finalised and a decision will be taken based on the discussions. The Rs 5,000 limit can be used via any other know-your-customer (KYC) route as well and not just by the Aadhaar number.The standing group has asked the department of revenue to examine options such as tracking the source country and consignors/consignees to identify suspicious activities, the abolition of exemption for gifts to avoid ambiguity and limiting the number of such consignments.Indian industry has complained to the government that Chinese etailers such as Club Factory, AliExpress and Shein are taking undue advantage of the exemption from customs duties on gifts of up to Rs 5,000. Officials have said that Chinese etailers, unlike their counterparts from other countries, do not ask customers for any government-issued identity proofs to complete transactions, making it difficult to track them. Besides impacting local manufacturing, the move is a violation of domestic laws.A complete ban on such imports had also been considered but the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion had suggested capping these to four per person per year, citing infeasibility of an outright prohibition.