India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has issued a clarification regarding the requirements for submission of Export Declaration Form (EDF) for exporters of services. As per the central bank’s latest amendment, the residential individuals will be deemed to have submitted the EDF once they provide the necessary payment-related information to their authorized dealer (AD) bank.
RBI issued the Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and Services) (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2026, through a Gazette notification on 2 November 2026. These regulations took effect retroactively from 1 October 2026.
The amendment comes after an earlier revision by the RBI dated 22 September, which also became effective on October 1. In this news article, we have mentioned the key points that you need to note regarding the latest amendment.
As per the 22 September regulation, “An exporter of services shall furnish to the specified authority a declaration in EDF specifying the amount representing the full export value of services, within 30 days from the end of month in which invoice for services has been raised.”
An exporter providing services to one or more recipients within a month could submit a single EDF that covers all of their exports. Exporters of services, excluding software, had to submit the EDF on or before the date they received payment.
Under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, an EDF is a document that needs to be filed by exporters to their AD Bank. This form is required to declare the services exported and the corresponding payment expected from overseas clients.
The bank records the said declaration in RBI’s Export Data Processing and Monitoring System, abbreviated as EDPMS. The transaction will remain pending under the exporter's Permanent Account Number (PAN) until the bank receives and matches the payment with the declaration.
Exporters are required to submit the EDF within 30 days after the end of the month in which the invoice is issued. For invoices dated in the month of October, the submission deadline is November 30.
The amendment notified on 2 November introduces a definition of resident individual. Additionally, it clarifies when an EDF is deemed to be filed with AD Bank. The central bank has defined a residential individual as “a person resident in India who is a natural person.”
The RBI has inserted a new provision as part of the amendment. This provision is read as follows: “The exporter of services shall be deemed to have submitted the EDF when such exporter, being a resident individual, provides information required in relation to the receipt of payment for such services to the Authorised Dealer for crediting the account of the exporter.”
To put it simply, individuals who earn income from overseas clients like freelancers, YouTubers and independent professionals will not be required to submit EDF separately if they have provided the required payment details to their bank.
The amendment allows for the same deemed-submission facility for exporters who are not resident individuals when the inward remittance for a service does not exceed Rs. 10 lakh (or its equivalent in foreign currency).
Therefore, companies and other service exporters can take advantage of simplified EDF compliance for eligible service export receipts up to Rs. 10 lakh threshold limit.
In addition to the changes discussed above, the central bank has also amended Regulation 18(1)(d). This particular regulation deals with reporting imports of services in IDPMS, which is an RBI reporting platform through which AD banks record/monitor import transactions and related payments.
Under the revised provision, it is stated that the AD “shall enter details of import of service in IDPMS, as furnished by the importer who is a person other than a resident individual and where the invoice or the contract value is more than ₹10 lakh (or its equivalent in foreign currency), within five working days of receipt of details.”
AD banks are required to enter details of import-of-service transactions into IDPMS within five working days upon receipt of relevant information, but only when the importer is not a resident individual and the invoice or contract value exceeds Rs. 10 lakh. However, this reporting requirement does not apply to resident individuals or to eligible transactions where the value is Rs. 10 lakh or less than that.
Source:- MSN
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