The Directorate General of Foreign Trade has removed the requirement for physical duty payment challans for Export Obligation Discharge Certificates, aiming to simplify export compliance and enhance digital processes amid ongoing reforms.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade has stopped requiring exporters to submit physical duty payment challans when seeking Export Obligation Discharge Certificates under the Advance Authorisation and Export Promotion Capital Goods schemes, in a move the Ministry of Commerce and Industry says is intended to cut compliance burdens and speed up the closure of export licences.
The new process applies to voluntary duty payments made on or after August 1, 2026. Exporters will be able to check authenticated payment details on the DGFT customer portal and confirm that the payment has been mapped to the correct authorisation before filing for closure.
DGFT has linked licence-wise voluntary duty payment data from Customs and the Indian Customs Electronic Gateway, or ICEGATE, with its own online systems. That integration allows payment records to be verified electronically, while regional authorities can see authenticated details through the DGFT back office rather than handling paper challans manually.
The ministry said the change is part of a wider push to simplify export compliance and expand end-to-end digital processing. It follows earlier steps by DGFT to reduce paper use in the authorisation system, including the move in 2019 to discontinue physical copies of Advance Authorisation and EPCG permissions for electronic-data-interchange ports. In March 2026, DGFT also automatically extended the export obligation period for certain Advance Authorisation and EPCG holders to August 31, 2026, without requiring separate applications or fees.
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