The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has removed the requirement for exporters to submit physical duty payment challans while applying for Export Obligation Discharge Certificates (EODC) under the Advance Authorisation and Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) schemes.
The move, announced by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is aimed at reducing compliance requirements, lowering transaction costs and speeding up the closure of export authorisations. The new facility will apply to voluntary duty payments made on or after August 1, 2026.
Under the revised process, exporters will no longer need to attach physical challans when applying for closure of their authorisations. Instead, they can access authenticated payment details through the DGFT Customer Portal and verify that the payment has been correctly mapped to the relevant authorisation before submitting their EODC application.
The DGFT has integrated licence-wise voluntary duty payment data received from Customs and the Indian Customs Electronic Gateway (ICEGATE) with its online systems. This enables the department to electronically authenticate and verify payments against the concerned authorisation.
The authenticated payment records will also be available to DGFT Regional Authorities through the DGFT Back Office, eliminating the need for manual verification of payment challans.
The facility has been enabled through an API-based data exchange between DGFT and ICEGATE, allowing duty payment information to flow electronically from Customs systems into the DGFT’s EODC processing workflow.
The Ministry said the shift from manual submission and verification to authenticated digital records is expected to shorten processing timelines, improve data accuracy, reduce human intervention and enhance transparency in the authorisation closure process.
The measure is part of the government’s broader effort to simplify export-related compliance and strengthen end-to-end digital processing for exporters.
