Special Rupee Vostro Accounts (SRVA): How Rupee-Settled Exports Work, and What Happens to Your FIRC and eBRC

A Special Rupee Vostro Account (SRVA) is a rupee account that a foreign correspondent bank holds with an Authorised Dealer bank in India, used to settle international trade directly in Indian rupees instead of US dollars.

The Reserve Bank of India introduced the framework on 11 July 2022.

When an Indian importer pays, rupees are credited to the SRVA; when an Indian exporter is paid, the proceeds are released in rupees from that same balance, so the trade never converts to a foreign currency inside India's settlement chain.

For an exporter, the question that actually matters is usually left unanswered: if you are paid in rupees through an SRVA rather than in foreign currency over SWIFT, do you still get your documentation? The short answer is yes.

Because your AD bank still records the credit as an inward remittance, it reports to EDPMS, an eBRC is generated, and a FIRC or FIRA is issued, denominated in rupees.

The essentials, before the detail:

• What it is: a rupee account a foreign bank holds with an Indian bank, used to settle trade in INR.
• Who set it up: RBI, under its International Trade Settlement in Indian Rupees framework, on 11 July 2022.
• What changes for you: the settlement currency is rupees, and you carry no exchange-rate risk on the receipt.
• What does not change: your FIRC or FIRA, your eBRC, your EDPMS closure, and your RoDTEP and GST benefits.

A vostro account is a rupee account that a foreign bank holds with an Indian bank; "vostro" is simply the Indian bank's view of that relationship.

A fuller primer on the wider family sits in this guide to nostro and vostro accounts.

An SRVA is a specific type of rupee vostro account, opened under RBI's rupee trade-settlement framework so that two countries can invoice, pay and settle trade in INR rather than routing every transaction through the US dollar.

In plain terms, an SRVA has four defining features:

• Denominated in rupees. The balance is held in INR, not in a foreign currency.
• Owned by a foreign bank. It belongs to a correspondent bank abroad, opened for it by an AD bank in India.
• Built for one corridor. It exists to settle trade between India and one partner country.
• Governed by one RBI framework. The rules are common across banks, so the mechanics do not change from one AD bank to another.

Why it exists matters for how you read the rest of this guide.

Rupee settlement lets India trade with countries that face dollar-liquidity or sanction constraints, reduces the exchange-rate risk that Indian businesses carry on cross-border deals, and slowly builds demand for the rupee in trade.

Those are macro goals, but they have a direct, practical consequence for you as an exporter: you can be paid in rupees for a genuine export, and that receipt has to fit into the same compliance system every other export uses.

The flow is easiest to read as a loop. Rupees paid in by Indian importers build up the balance; rupees paid out fund Indian exporters.

Indian importer ──INR──▶  AD bank in India  ──credits──▶  Special Rupee Vostro Account
                                                          (held for the partner country's bank)

Indian exporter ◀──INR── AD bank in India ◀──debits──── balance in the SRVA

Step by step, a single export settles like this:

• The Indian exporter and the overseas buyer agree a rupee price and raise an INR invoice.
• The buyer pays its own bank in its local currency.
• The buyer's bank funds the correspondent bank's SRVA held in India.
• The Indian AD bank debits the SRVA and credits the exporter in rupees.
• The exporter's documentation, from the FIRC to the eBRC, is generated against that credit.

Surplus balances are not left idle. Under the framework, funds in an SRVA can be used for:

• Payments for permissible current and capital account transactions.
• Settlement of trade between the two countries.
• Project and investment flows between the partners.
• Investment in Indian government securities and treasury bills, allowed since the August 2025 easing.

That August 2025 update also let AD Category-I banks open SRVAs without prior RBI approval, which is why the number of live accounts has grown quickly.

The realisation of export proceeds still has to happen within RBI's normal timelines, so a rupee receipt is treated on the same clock as a dollar one.

Numbers make the flow concrete. Say a Ludhiana engineering-goods exporter ships a consignment worth ₹40,00,000 to a buyer in a partner country that settles with India in rupees. Here is how the money and the paperwork move:

• Invoice: raised in INR for ₹40,00,000, because the corridor settles in rupees.
• Payment in: the overseas buyer pays its local bank, which instructs the correspondent bank holding the SRVA; ₹40,00,000 is drawn from that balance.
• Credit to you: your AD bank credits ₹40,00,000 to your current account and tags it with the export purpose code for inward remittance.
• FIRC or FIRA: your bank issues the certificate showing ₹40,00,000 as the realised value.
• eBRC: the bank uploads the inward remittance message to DGFT; you self-certify the eBRC against your shipping bill; the entry closes in EDPMS.
• Incentives: you claim RoDTEP on the realised value and keep your GST zero-rating, exactly as you would for a receipt in dollars.

The one real difference from a dollar receipt is currency risk.

Because the invoice and the settlement are both in rupees, there is no USD/INR conversion, so there is no exchange-rate gain or loss between the day you invoice and the day you are paid.

You know your rupee figure from the start.

Both routes are legitimate ways to be paid for an export. They differ mainly in the settlement currency and in who carries the exchange-rate risk.

Two takeaways sit behind that table:

• Rupee settlement removes conversion, not compliance. You lose the FX risk and the FX cost, but you keep every document.
• Most Indian exporters are not on a rupee corridor. SRVA use is concentrated in specific bilateral goods-trade relationships. If your clients pay in dollars, the second column is your world.

If you want the timing and cost mechanics of that second column, this explainer on how SWIFT payment works walks through the correspondent-banking chain a normal forex remittance travels.

Yes. This is the part every account explainer skips, and it is the concern that stops exporters accepting rupee settlement.

A rupee credit into an SRVA is still an inward remittance recorded by your AD bank.

That bank issues a foreign inward remittance certificate or its advice equivalent against the credit, the only difference being that the certificate shows the value in rupees rather than in a foreign currency.

For services exports, the electronic advice you would normally rely on, the eFIRA, works the same way.

On the export-monitoring side, the bank uploads the inward remittance message to DGFT, and the bank realisation certificate is generated from it for you to self-certify against your shipping bill or SOFTEX.

That closure feeds straight into EDPMS, so your realisation record stays complete and no export sits open against your name.

Whichever way you are paid, keep this set for a clean audit trail:

• The commercial invoice, in INR for an SRVA export and in the foreign currency otherwise.
• The FIRC, or the FIRA/eFIRA, issued against the credit.
• The eBRC self-certified in the DGFT portal.
• The shipping bill for goods, or the SOFTEX filing for software and services.
• The export purpose code tagged to the credit by your bank.

They do. This is the second big fear, and the answer is reassuring on both counts.

• Foreign Trade Policy benefits carry over. The 11 July 2022 circular extended FTP benefits to export proceeds realised in rupees through vostro accounts, and trade-press guidance has consistently confirmed that incentives are available on rupee realisation. The current RoDTEP scheme follows the same remittance-linked logic as the earlier regimes it replaced.
• Eligibility is not currency-gated. Being paid in rupees does not, by itself, disqualify you from a scheme you would otherwise claim; the wider set of export incentives is judged on the export, not on the settlement currency.

GST treatment is separate from the settlement currency altogether.

An export of services is judged on the place-of-supply and consideration rules, not on whether you were paid in dollars or rupees, so zero-rated supply status and the LUT or refund route are unaffected by using an SRVA.

As always, check your specific facts with a tax adviser before you file.

Most services exporters are not on a rupee corridor at all, so it helps to see what the far more common forex receipt costs. Say you invoice a US client for $10,000.

At a mid-market rate of ₹95, that invoice is worth ₹9,50,000 before any fees.

• Through a typical bank: the bank quotes a rate marked up from a non-public interbank rate. A spread of roughly 1.5% to 2% on the exchange rate alone works out to about ₹14,000 to ₹19,000 less than the mid-market value, before flat SWIFT and handling charges are added. (Illustrative figures; your bank's spread will differ.)
• Through Xflow: the conversion is marked up on the live mid-market rate you can see, not a hidden interbank rate, which is how exporters save up to 50% on FX costs against a traditional bank. Your eFIRA is issued automatically and the FIRC is still issued by the AD bank.

Whichever route you are on, the documentation lands. The variable is what the conversion costs you and how quickly you see the money.

Adoption has widened since 2022. As of early 2025, RBI told Parliament that around 156 SRVAs had been approved across 26 Indian banks, opened for roughly 123 correspondent banks from about 30 partner countries.

• Most active corridors: Russia, through banks such as Sberbank and VTB, and Sri Lanka.
• A longer tail: a wider set of countries at smaller volumes, with new corridors added as the rules ease.
• A moving figure: the count has risen with each relaxation of the framework, so treat any number as a snapshot.

Before you plan a corridor around rupee settlement, verify the current position with your AD bank, because both the country list and the participating banks change through the year.

For most Indian services exporters, freelancers, SaaS teams and ITeS companies, the route is not an SRVA at all. Rupee settlement is largely a bank-led, goods-trade arrangement tied to specific partner countries. Use this quick test:

• You are likely on an SRVA (rupee) corridor if: your buyer is in a country that has a rupee-settlement arrangement with India, your bank asked you to invoice in INR, and the payment reaches you with no currency conversion.
• You are receiving in foreign currency if: your clients pay in USD, GBP, EUR, AED or similar, your invoice is in that currency, and the rupee figure is worked out on the day the money lands. This covers most freelancers, SaaS and ITeS exporters.

If you are in the second group, the real question is what your forex receipts cost and whether your FIRC and eFIRA come through cleanly. That is where a modern receiving setup helps.

Xflow gives you receiving accounts in the currencies your clients pay in, converts at the mid-market rate rather than a hidden interbank rate, and auto-issues your eFIRA while the FIRC continues to be issued by the AD bank, so your compliance workflow does not change when you move off a slow SWIFT wire.

Settlement to your Indian bank account is T+1.

An SRVA lets India settle trade in rupees, which takes the dollar out of the middle of the transaction and shifts exchange-rate risk off the Indian side.

Crucially for exporters, being paid in rupees through an SRVA does not cost you your paperwork:

• The FIRC or FIRA is still issued, in rupees.
• The eBRC is still generated and EDPMS still closes.
• RoDTEP and GST benefits still apply.

Whether you settle in rupees through an SRVA or receive foreign currency the usual way, the compliance trail stays intact. The decision comes down to your corridor, your counterparty, and what your conversion costs you.