The export obligation window dropped to 12 months
For most sectors the period shortened from eighteen months, and missing it carries interest at fifteen percent on the duty saved. Worth recalculating your position.
If you hold an authorisation that let you import at a concessional rate against a commitment to export, the clock is shorter than it used to be. For most sectors the export obligation window has moved from eighteen months to twelve.
The penalty for missing it is not nominal. Interest runs at fifteen percent on the duty saved.
Why a third less time is more than a third harder
Export obligations are usually met from production that depends on the imported input. So the sequence is: import, clear, produce, sell, ship, document. Six months removed from the window does not remove six months of slack — it removes six months from whatever buffer existed at the end, which for most businesses was the entire margin for error.
A supplier delay, a quality rejection, or a customer pushing an order back by a quarter now has consequences it did not have before.
Recalculate the obligation end date on every live authorisation you hold and put it somewhere visible. The interest cost of discovering this late is a real number, not a formality.
What to check
- The obligation period applying to each of your live authorisations, and the end date that follows from it.
- Whether your current export pipeline actually closes the obligation inside that window — on realistic dates, not optimistic ones.
- Whether documentation for exports already made has been filed to count toward the obligation. Exports that happened but were not documented do not help you.
- Where you have a shortfall, what your options are — and raise it early rather than at expiry, when there are fewer of them.
Note that all of this now runs through the DGFT portal, which no longer accepts paper filings. If your digital signature or portal access is not in order, sort that out before you need to file anything urgently.
One practical note on the import side of the same authorisation: the goods you bring in against it still need the usual document set to be consistent, and a query at clearance eats days you may not have if the obligation clock is already tight. Our documentation checklist covers the mismatches that most often cause one, and our customs clearance desk handles the filing in-house.
Questions we are getting
What is the export obligation period in India now?
For most sectors it has been reduced from eighteen months to twelve months. Missing the obligation carries interest at fifteen percent on the duty saved.
What happens if I miss my export obligation?
Interest becomes payable at fifteen percent on the duty that was saved under the authorisation. Raising a likely shortfall early gives you more options than discovering it at expiry.