India's DGFT automates free sale certificates for exporters
Oct 06, 2026
India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has enabled automated issuance of Free Sale and Commerce Certificates (FSCs) on the DGFT portal, a move aimed at easing export compliance for eligible applicants.
The certificates are issued to exporters under the Foreign Trade Policy for items that are not covered under the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940. Until now, such certificates have been issued by DGFT regional authorities after scrutiny and verification.
Eligible applications will now be considered for automatic issuance under the prevailing framework, without being routed for manual scrutiny. The automated mechanism is expected to cut processing time for a significant category of FSC applications and reduce the compliance burden linked to the earlier manual process.
Applications that require verification, or those that do not meet the automated processing parameters, may continue to be sent to the concerned regional authority for manual processing. Some auto-approved applications may also be subsequently flagged to the concerned regional authority for review under the system's risk management parameters.
The measure is intended to reduce avoidable manual intervention, improve processing predictability and support faster issuance of FSCs for eligible exporters, while retaining verification and oversight for applications that require scrutiny.
By strengthening automated, rule-based processing and applying risk-based review, the initiative is expected to make FSC issuance more efficient, transparent and predictable for exporters and administering authorities.
