01
Start here: five things to get straight
Before any form, any fee, any consultant.
One warning worth more than the rest of this page.
Everything in the next section can be done by you, online, for roughly
the price of a decent meal. There is a whole industry charging small
businesses tens of thousands of rupees to fill in free government
forms. Paying a professional for genuine help — a customs agent, an
accountant — is sensible. Paying anyone for an Udyam registration is
not: it is free, and only on udyamregistration.gov.in.
02
The sequence
Seven steps, in the order they actually depend on each other. Each one
lists what it costs, how long it takes, and the mistake people make.
1PAN + current accountAny bankA business current account that can receive foreign inward remittance. Tell the bank you intend to export — they will flag the account correctly from the start.Cost: Free to open, varies by bank · Time: DaysWhat people get wrong: A savings account will not do. Get this right first; every later step references it.
2IEC — Importer-Exporter CodeDGFTYour 10-digit licence to export anything from India. Applied for online at the DGFT portal with PAN, bank details and Aadhaar e-sign or a digital signature.Cost: About ₹500, one-time · Time: 1–3 working daysWhat people get wrong: The IEC never expires but must be e-updated once every financial year, even if nothing changed. Skip the update and it is deactivated — which people discover at the port.Official portal → 3Udyam registration (MSME)Ministry of MSMEYour official MSME identity, based on self-declared investment and turnover. It is the key that unlocks every MSME-only benefit on this site.Cost: Free · Time: Same dayWhat people get wrong: It is genuinely free on udyamregistration.gov.in. Dozens of lookalike sites charge for it — check the URL ends in .gov.in.Official portal → 4GST registration + LUTGST portalRegister for GST, then file Form GST RFD-11 (the Letter of Undertaking) to export without paying IGST upfront. The LUT runs to 31 March and must be refiled every financial year.Cost: Free · Time: Registration a few days; LUT immediateWhat people get wrong: The LUT is annual. Exporters routinely forget to refile in April and end up blocking working capital in IGST refunds for months.Official portal → 5AD code registrationYour bank, then ICEGATEYour bank issues a 14-digit Authorised Dealer code on its letterhead. You register it against each customs port you will ship from, on ICEGATE.Cost: Free · Time: A few daysWhat people get wrong: The AD code is registered per port. If you ship from Nhava Sheva and later from Delhi air cargo, that is a second registration. Shipping bills cannot be filed at an unregistered port.Official portal → 6RCMC — Registration cum Membership CertificateYour Export Promotion CouncilMembership of the council for your product, applied for through the DGFT common portal. Proof you are a recognised exporter in your sector.Cost: Membership fee, varies by council · Time: Days to weeksWhat people get wrong: Not needed for your very first shipment, but required to claim most incentives and to get subsidised trade-fair stands. Find your council on the toolkit page.Official portal → 7First shipping billCustoms, via ICEGATE or your CHAThe export declaration. Most first-timers use a Customs House Agent (CHA) rather than filing themselves — reasonable for the first few shipments while you learn the fields.Cost: CHA fees if you use one · Time: Per shipmentWhat people get wrong: Tick the RoDTEP and drawback declarations on the shipping bill. If you leave them blank you forfeit the refund for that shipment, and it cannot be fixed afterwards.Official portal →
You can be legally ready to ship after steps 1–5, typically
within a couple of weeks and for a few hundred rupees. Step 6 (RCMC)
is what unlocks the incentive schemes, so do it early even though your
first shipment does not require it.
03
Certifications: what you must have, and what buyers ask for
Two different things that get confused. Legal requirements stop your
shipment at a border. Buyer requirements stop the order before it
starts — and are often the bigger obstacle.
Before paying for any voluntary certification, ask the buyer in
writing which one they need. Certifications are expensive and specific;
the wrong one is money gone. Several MSME schemes reimburse part of the
cost — see the schemes matched to your business.
04
Getting paid, and not getting burned
The failure that ends small exporters is not customs. It is shipping
goods to a stranger and never seeing the money.
Payment terms, safest first
How to protect yourself
05
Money to fund the order
Export finance is a different product range from ordinary business
lending. Ask for it by name — banks rarely volunteer it.
06
When a buyer does not pay you
Two different regimes: an overseas buyer and an Indian buyer are not the same problem.
07
Where small units already win
Product groups made largely by small units — with the size of the
world market and India’s current share, so you can see the room.
Click any row to open that product’s full picture: which markets
buy it, how much India already supplies, and where the gap is.
About this page
The process, costs and timelines are compiled from the official
portals linked throughout — DGFT, Udyam, GST, ICEGATE, BIS, ZED,
CGTMSE, MSME Samadhaan — and were last checked in
July 2026. Market figures come from this
site’s UN Comtrade data. Fees and limits change; the sequence
rarely does. Treat this as orientation and confirm current specifics
on the official portal before you pay anything.
This is not legal, tax or financial advice. For a first shipment of
any real value, a customs house agent and an accountant who has done
export work before are both worth their fee.
How to cite this page. ValueChain. (2025).
The MSME export playbook.
https://valuechain.international/msme.html
A fee changed, or a step out of date?
Tell us and we’ll fix it — corrections are welcome.