What happened: DGFT links EODC closure to authenticated electronic duty-payment records instead of physical challans

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has removed the requirement of submitting physical duty payment challans while applying for Export Obligation Discharge Certificates (EODC) under the Advance Authorisation (AA) and Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) schemes.

DGFT will integrate licence-wise voluntary duty payment data received from Customs/ICEGATE into its online systems so that DGFT provides authenticated verification directly against the concerned authorisation.

For voluntary duty payments made on or after 1 August 2026, exporters will no longer be required to submit physical challans along with EODC closure applications. DGFT states that it will make authenticated payment details available to exporters on the DGFT Customer Portal so that exporters can verify that the payment is correctly mapped to the concerned authorisation before filing the application.

DGFT states that the same authenticated payment record will be available to DGFT Regional Authorities on the DGFT Back Office, removing the need for manual verification of payment particulars.

DGFT further states that the digital facility is implemented through an API-based data exchange between DGFT and ICEGATE, with duty payment particulars transmitted electronically from Customs systems to the DGFT EODC processing workflow.

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