IEC Code Fees in India: What DGFT Actually Charges (2026)

The official government fee for a new Import Export Code (IEC) is a one-time Rs 500, payable online through the DGFT portal. If you hire a chartered accountant or an agency, professional service fees typically add Rs 1,500 to Rs 4,500 on top.

As of August 2026 the Rs 500 figure is unchanged. The same code is also written as Importer-Exporter Code, and both names refer to the same 10-character code.

IEC code fees split into two groups worth keeping apart. There is what the government charges, and there is what a private firm charges you to deal with the government.

Four numbers cover almost every situation. The column that matters most is the last one, because only three of these four payments go to the government.

The code carries lifetime validity and does not need to be renewed. The only recurring obligation is the free annual update, covered further down.

All three government figures come from one public document: Appendix 2K, the fee schedule published by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).

Its full title is the "Scale of User Charges and Process for Deposit/Refund of Application Fee/Penalty, etc."

You can read the schedule and file the application at dgft.gov.in. Anyone quoting a different government number should be able to point at a row in it.

The Rs 500 Application Fee

Appendix 2K, Sl No. 1, reads "Application for Importer Exporter Code /Id Card" against a charge of five hundred rupees.

What it buys is narrow: a 10-character code, identical to the entity's PAN, that lets you export legally. There is no annual licence behind it.

The Rs 200 Amendment Fee

For a services exporter, the Rs 200 row bites when you shift office or switch the bank account your export receipts land in.

Appendix 2K, Sl No. 6, prices an application to amend or correct a licence, scrip, authorisation, certificate or permission at two hundred rupees.

Neither change is a new application, so you pay Rs 200 rather than Rs 500, and only when something on the record genuinely changes.

The Annual Update: Nil

Row 6(A) of the same appendix is explicit. "Annual updation of IEC during the period April to June as per Para 2.05 of HBP" carries a charge of Nil.

That row was inserted by Public Notice 49/2015-20 dated 31 March 2021.

Para 2.05 of the HBP, DGFT's Handbook of Procedures, is the provision that creates the obligation. The update is free even if there are no changes, because you are confirming your details rather than amending them.

The window is 1 April to 30 June, every year, at Nil charge.

The April to June Annual Update

The annual update is an e-KYC confirmation of what DGFT already holds: entity details, address, bank account, and the people authorised to act for the firm. It is required to keep the code active.

It falls between April and June every year, even in a year where nothing has moved. Both the fee and the window are stated in Appendix 2K itself.

The on-screen mechanics change from time to time, so work from the portal's own prompts.

Deactivation, and Why Reactivation Costs Nothing

DGFT set out the deactivation of un-updated IECs in Trade Notice 31/2021-22, dated 14 January 2022, citing para 2.05(e) of the Foreign Trade Policy.

That notice ran one specific phase of deactivation against fixed dates, so treat the dates in it as historic.

Paragraph 4 is the part that describes the standing mechanism. It says a deactivated IEC has "the opportunity for automatic re-activation without any manual intervention or any visits to the DGFT RA".

Complete the overdue update and the code is active again, at no charge.

The fee schedule agrees. The current Appendix 2K contains no IEC reactivation line item at all.

The confusion has a traceable source:

• What people cite - Appendix 2K rows carrying Rs 500 and Rs 1,000
• What those rows actually are - first and second revalidation of authorisations, scrips and licences (SCOMET etc.), which is unrelated to an IEC

If a page quotes you a late renewal charge, ask which row of Appendix 2K it comes from.

IEC STRUCTURE
  10 characters, identical to the entity's PAN

  A A A A A   0 0 0 0   A
  └───┬───┘   └──┬──┘   ┬
      │          │      │
  5 letters   4 digits  1 letter

The application itself runs on dgft.gov.in in six steps:

1. Register on the DGFT portal, using email and mobile OTP
2. Open "Apply for IEC" and link your PAN
3. Enter entity, address and bank details
4. Pay Rs 500, the only government fee, at this step
5. Sign with a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) or Aadhaar-based OTP e-sign, then submit
6. The IEC is issued electronically and downloadable from the portal

At step 4 the portal directs you to a payment gateway. Appendix 2K lists the online payment options as including internet banking, debit cards, credit cards and UPI.

Have these ready before you start, because a rejected application wastes the fee you already paid:

• PAN - of the applicant or firm, and the name must match the bank account exactly
• Bank account details - a cancelled cheque or a bank certificate
• Address proof - a recent utility bill, rent agreement or lease deed, with a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the owner if the premises are not in your name
• Identity proof and photograph - of the proprietor, partner or director
• Certificate of Incorporation - for companies and LLPs, where applicable
• A signing method - either a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) or Aadhaar-based OTP e-sign

Once the code is issued, the paperwork that recurs sits on the money coming in, which is where our eFIRA explainer picks up.

The government fee is fixed. Everything above it is a purchase decision, and for some readers it is a reasonable one.

What a Consultant's Fee Actually Covers

You are buying filing and error correction. Chartered accountants and company secretaries are the usual providers, alongside registration agencies.

Published ranges vary, and the spread is worth knowing before you agree a quote:

• Advertised packages - Rs 1,500 to Rs 4,500 on top of the government fee, sampled across registration agencies in August 2026
• One example - a package advertised at Rs 3,499 as all-inclusive
• What moves the number - whether a Digital Signature Certificate is bundled in

These are vendor prices, not a set rate. The 18% GST attaches to the service fee, never to the Rs 500.

The DSC Question, and How a Sole Proprietor Avoids It

Class-3 certificates from certifying authorities such as eMudhra run roughly Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,770 for two years with a token. Combination certificates run about Rs 2,300 to Rs 2,900. Both checked August 2026.

Which one applies depends on your entity:

• Companies, LLPs and trusts - generally need a DSC
• Sole proprietors - can often sign with Aadhaar-based OTP e-sign instead, at no cost

That split reflects general practice rather than a DGFT page naming entity types, so check what the application form asks of your entity before buying anything.

The Costs That Repeat After Registration

Xflow does not file IEC applications and is not an alternative to paying DGFT Rs 500.

The IEC is a one-time sunk cost of a few hundred rupees. Three costs attach to every payment you receive afterwards:

• FX margin - applied on every inward remittance
• Wire and intermediary charges - deducted along the banking chain
• eFIRA paperwork - attached to each payment you receive

Across a year of invoices that is a much larger number than anything in Appendix 2K. Xflow works on that side of the transaction, for Indian services exporters receiving foreign payments, with eFIRA issued automatically.

Before weighing Rs 500 against a consultant package, it is worth checking whether you owe either. DGFT's own IEC Profile Management page answers this directly.

What DGFT Itself Says About Services Exports

"For services exports however, IEC shall be not be [sic] necessary except when the service provider is taking benefits under the Foreign Trade Policy."

The general rule on the same page is broad: "No export or import shall be made by any person without obtaining an IEC unless specifically exempted."

The services carve-out is that exemption. Note what it turns on:

• Activity, not entity - it is written around services exports, not around company type
• FTP benefits - claim one and the requirement returns, whoever you are

What That Means for an ITES Firm or a Freelancer

Two cases fall inside the same sentence:

• An ITES or software-services company - exporting development or consulting work and not claiming FTP benefits, DGFT's page says the code is not necessary
• A freelancer billing overseas clients - covered too, because the exemption is worded around services exports rather than company type

Goods exporters also file with customs through ICEGATE, the customs electronic gateway. A services exporter generally does not.

There is a real counterweight. Some services exporters obtain one anyway, and the moment you claim a Foreign Trade Policy benefit you will need it.

Several of the charges bundled into those consultant packages are not government fees at all. Some are free at the government end, and some are a service fee carrying an official-sounding name.

There is also a route where even the Rs 500 disappears:

• Where it lives - Appendix 2K section 3, "Exemption from Payment of Fees"
• What it says - no fee is payable on an application made by a class or category of applicant specified in the Foreign Trade (Regulation) Rules, 1993
• What to do - the appendix names the rules but does not list the categories, so check whether yours is listed there before you pay

Once the code is issued, confirming it is free too, which is what our guide to IEC code verification covers.

IEC code fees come to Rs 500 once, Rs 200 only when your address or bank details change, and nothing for the annual update if you file it between April and June.

Every other number attached to this process is either a private service fee, or a misread row from a schedule you can open yourself.

• Rs 500 - once, on application
• Rs 200 - only when address or bank details change
• Nil - the annual update, filed between April and June
• Nil - reactivation, if the window is ever missed

What you pay month after month to convert and receive foreign currency in India is the larger number, and it is where ITES exporters tend to find real money.