Step 02 / 07
Open a current account with a bank that handles foreign exchange
Export money must come through an Authorised Dealer (AD) bank. Get a current account in the business name and ask the bank for its AD code.
- 1Choose your business form and get a PAN
- 2Open a current account with a bank that handles foreign exchange
- 3Get your Importer-Exporter Code (IEC) from DGFT
- 4Register for GST and file a Letter of Undertaking (LUT)
- 5Get an RCMC from the right Export Promotion Council or Board
- 6Get the licences your product needs
- 7Make your first shipment
- Official fee
- No government fee. Banks set their own account and forex charges, and must publish them under the RBI 2026 regulations — compare before you choose.
- Time
- Usually a few working days, depending on the bank’s KYC checks.
Most large banks are Authorised Dealers under the Foreign Exchange Management Act. Open a current account in exactly the same name as your PAN. The bank will receive your export payments, report them to RBI’s Export Data Processing and Monitoring System (EDPMS), and issue the realisation data that later becomes your e-BRC.
Ask the branch for its 14-digit AD code in writing, on the bank’s letterhead. You will register this code with Customs (on ICEGATE) before your first shipment. Without it, Customs will not let your shipping bill through.
From 1 October 2026 RBI’s new Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2026 apply. Export value must normally be realised within nine months of shipment (twelve months if invoiced in Indian rupees). Your bank can extend this on a written request with reasons.
If you take an advance from a buyer, route the advance and the later payments through the same bank. If you switch banks, tell both of them in writing.