Regarding company website domain name

Hi Santanu, very interesting queries. To answer your first question, yes entities which do not have a presence in India are also permitted to buy and operate a website with .in extension for business purposes. To address your second question, at the outset, I can see FDI policies entering the picture. To comment further, it is important to understand the nature of the commercial transactions, does it cater to B2B market or B2C market?

FYI: In a B2C market, a foreign e-commerce entity is only allowed to act as a facilitator between the buyer and seller without any control over the inventory of goods and services. In a B2C market, a foreign e-commerce entity is not allowed to own the products that are being sold on the platform while in a B2B market it is allowed.

On the taxation aspect I hope some expert can provide their inputs.

Hi Santanu, very interesting queries. To answer your first question, yes entities which do not have a presence in India are also permitted to buy and operate a website with .in extension for business purposes. To address your second question, at the outset, I can see FDI policies entering the picture. To comment further, it is important to understand the nature of the commercial transactions, does it cater to B2B market or B2C market?

FYI: In a B2C market, a foreign e-commerce entity is only allowed to act as a facilitator between the buyer and seller without any control over the inventory of goods and services. In a B2C market, a foreign e-commerce entity is not allowed to own the products that are being sold on the platform while in a B2B market it is allowed.

On the taxation aspect I hope some expert can provide their inputs.