Central Bank of India Forex Rates: TT Rate & Charges

Central Bank of India (CBI) does not use one exchange rate. It publishes a forex rate sheet each working day and revises it through the day as the market moves.

When money reaches you from abroad, CBI applies its TT (telegraphic transfer) buying rate, which sits below the live mid-market rate. That gap, the margin, is where most of the cost hides, and it is separate from the fees and the 18% GST on the conversion.

If you are an exporter or freelancer receiving payments, the TT buying rate on your credit advice decides your rupee payout, not the rate CBI advertises.

If you receive export income regularly, you can collect international payments at the live mid-market rate and keep more of each invoice. This guide covers how CBI sets each rate, what a transfer really costs, how to read today’s number, and how the maths compares.

A "forex rate" is the price of one currency in another at a given moment. Banks quote it against the interbank rate, the wholesale price at which large institutions trade, then add a margin before passing it to you.

CBI publishes several rates because each transaction type carries a different margin. If you want the plain-English version of how these numbers are built, start with forex rates.

The rates CBI shows are indicative. The rate that actually applies is the one prevailing when your account is debited or credited, so a morning figure can shift by the time your transfer settles.

TT stands for telegraphic transfer, the electronic movement of money between banks across borders. CBI uses two TT rates, plus bill rates for cheques and documents.

• TT buying rate: the rate at which CBI buys foreign currency from you and pays out rupees. This applies when you receive an inward remittance, and to export bills and certain deposit conversions.
• TT selling rate: the rate at which CBI sells you foreign currency, used when you send money out.
• Bill rates: used for foreign cheques and trade documents, slightly wider than the TT rates.

For anyone receiving export income, the TT buying rate is the number that matters. A telegraphic transfer is the default rail behind most bank-to-bank inward payments. Here is an illustrative snapshot (as of July 2026).

The mid-market rate that day is around ₹89.40, so every CBI rate sits a margin away from it.

The exchange-rate margin is the largest cost, but not the only one. As of July 2026, the fees an exporter or freelancer is likely to meet are set out below.

Receiving money still carries a commission plus the rate margin, so the "free credit" impression is not quite accurate. GST at 18% applies, and any foreign-bank, courier, or SWIFT fees are billed on top.

Banks revise these schedules periodically, so verify the current numbers on CBI's own forex page before you rely on a figure.

This comes up often, so it is worth answering directly. CBI focuses on traditional forex services, that is, remittances, foreign currency cash, and trade finance. It does not offer a dedicated prepaid forex travel card in the way ICICI, SBI, or Axis do.

For carrying money abroad, CBI sells foreign currency notes, with a Currency Declaration Form required above USD 5,000. If you specifically want a prepaid travel card for overseas spending, you would look to another provider.

None of this affects the point that matters for exporters: when you receive money, it is the TT buying rate on the inward remittance that decides your payout, not a card rate.

Every foreign-exchange conversion in India attracts 18% GST. It is charged on a "value of supply" the RBI defines in slabs (in force since 1 July 2017), not on your full transfer amount, so it stays modest even on large sums.

The takeaway is simple. GST is a known, capped, and comparatively small cost. The exchange-rate margin is the variable you can actually influence.

Search "USD to INR" and you see the mid-market rate, the midpoint between global buy and sell prices. That is the fair reference rate, and no bank pays it out in full. The difference comes from three layers.

Spread

CBI applies a margin between the interbank rate and the rate it gives you, generally around 1% to 3% below mid-market on inward transfers, though it varies by day, currency, and relationship. This is the foreign exchange markup, rarely shown as a line item.

Correspondent deductions

Inward wires can pass through an intermediary bank that takes its own cut before the money reaches CBI, so the credited amount can be smaller than the sender’s figure.

Market volatility

The rate moves through the day. Because your transfer settles at the prevailing rate, not the quoted one, timing changes the outcome.

The cleanest way to see the true price is to compare the applied rate against the live mid-market rate on the same day.

Say a client sends you USD 10,000 for a completed project, and the mid-market USD/INR rate that day is ₹89.40 (illustrative, as of July 2026).

• At the mid-market rate: 10,000 × 89.40 = ₹8,94,000
• At CBI’s TT buying rate, roughly 1.7% lower at about ₹87.90: 10,000 × 87.90 = ₹8,79,000
• Difference from the rate margin alone: about ₹15,000, before the commission, GST, any FIRC fee, and correspondent deductions.

That ₹15,000 is not a fee you approved. It is the spread, and it repeats on every transfer.

Over a year of monthly foreign inward remittance, the same margin quietly compounds into a meaningful sum. You can cross-check the reference number any day using usd to inr.

There are three reliable ways to find the rate, in order of accuracy.

• CBI’s forex rate sheet on its website, revised on working days. It lists TT and bill rates per currency.
• Your account credit advice or FIRA, which records the exact rate applied to your specific transfer. This is the only rate that is truly yours.
• The branch or relationship manager, useful if you are negotiating on higher volumes.

A quoted morning rate is only a guide. The rate that lands is the one live at the moment of credit, which is why the FIRA figure and the morning quote rarely match to the paisa. For compliance, the FIRA is the document that proves both the inward remittance and the rate applied.

Xflow is a cross-border payments platform built for Indian businesses and freelancers receiving money from abroad. The core difference is the reference rate.

CBI marks up a hidden interbank rate and adds a commission to receive. Xflow converts at the live mid-market rate and charges a transparent, visible fee, so you can see exactly what conversion costs. Its published pricing, as of July 2026, is below.

Take the same USD 10,000 invoice on the Growth plan. The fee is 0.4%, about USD 40 (roughly ₹3,576 at ₹89.40), and the conversion happens at the mid-market rate rather than a marked-down one.

You keep close to the mid-market payout minus a fee you can see, instead of losing the spread you never agreed to. The gap between the two approaches widens as volumes rise. Settlement is next business day (T+1), and each payment comes with an auto-issued eFIRA.

A few honest caveats belong here. If you already hold accounts, overdraft lines, and trade facilities with CBI, consolidating can matter more than a few paise on rate.

For one-off or very small transfers, a flat fee can outweigh the rate saving. Run your own numbers on a typical invoice first, and read how to reduce international payment fees to see where the real leakage sits. For regular mid-to-large export receipts, the platform is used for cross-border payments for service exporters.

This is the fear that stops most exporters from switching, and it is worth addressing head-on. Receiving through a regulated platform does not break your regulatory trail.

Xflow holds final RBI Payment Aggregator – Cross Border (PA-CB) authorisation for both exports and imports (as of February 2026), works with AD-1 banks, and auto-issues an eFIRA for each payment.

Your purpose codes, GST refund workflow, and downstream reporting continue as before, and the bank FIRC route remains available. Compliance stays intact; the paperwork simply becomes less manual.

Central Bank of India’s forex rates are set by a daily rate sheet, and the TT buying rate, not the advertised number, decides what lands in your account. CBI runs traditional forex services rather than a prepaid travel card, so for receiving money the inward rate is what to watch.

The 18% GST is small and capped. The exchange-rate margin of roughly 1% to 3% is the real cost on inward transfers, and it repeats every time.

Check the rate on your FIRA, compare it against the mid-market rate the same day, and if you receive export income regularly, run one invoice through a mid-market-rate platform to see the difference for yourself.

Xflow's receiving accounts settle inward payments at the mid-market rate by default, so there is no separate comparison to run each time.