RoDTEP Export Incentive Rates Extended Only Through September 30 — What Exporters Should Do Now

What Changed

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) confirmed in Notification No. 74/2025-26 that the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme continues at its existing rates for a further six months, from April 1, 2026 through September 30, 2026. The rates and value caps set out in Appendix 4R and Appendix 4RE remain unchanged for this window — DGFT has not announced any rate revision alongside the extension.

RoDTEP replaced the older MEIS (Merchandise Exports from India Scheme) in 2021 as India's WTO-compliant mechanism for refunding embedded costs on exports, rather than being calculated as a straightforward subsidy on the sale price. Since then, DGFT has renewed it in rolling six-month blocks rather than committing to a longer-term rate schedule, and this extension follows that same pattern.

Why This Matters if You Export from India

RoDTEP refunds embedded duties, taxes and levies that aren't otherwise rebated under any other export incentive scheme — things like electricity duty, fuel used in transport, and state-level taxes that would otherwise sit inside your landed export cost. Rates are notified per eight-digit HS code and typically run between roughly 0.3% and 4.3% of FOB value, subject to a per-unit value cap. For high-volume categories like Basmati Rice and Turmeric Powder, that percentage adds up meaningfully across a full shipment, and it's one of the few incentives available on top of your regular sale price.

The practical risk for exporters isn't the current window — rates are locked in through September 30 — it's what happens after. DGFT has extended this scheme in six-month increments through 2025 and now into 2026, but each extension has been announced close to the prior deadline rather than well in advance, which has occasionally left exporters mid-shipment without clarity on whether a consignment would still qualify.

What to Do Before September 30

• Don't assume automatic continuation. Treat September 30 as a real deadline until DGFT publishes the next notification, not a formality.
• Check your shipping bill declarations. RoDTEP is claimed at the time of export by selecting the scheme on the shipping bill — a missed declaration usually can't be corrected after the fact, so it's worth confirming with your customs house agent on every consignment, not just new ones.
• Time uncertain shipments conservatively. If a shipment could slip past month-end due to vessel schedules or documentation delays, build in buffer rather than assuming the scheme rolls over on identical terms.
• Watch for the next notification directly from DGFT or APEDA rather than relying on secondhand summaries — eligible HS codes and rates have shifted slightly between extensions before.

Our Take

For most of the categories we handle — rice, spices, pulses and packaged staples — RoDTEP has been a stable, if quietly renewed, part of export economics for several years now. The bigger practical risk is usually procedural (a missed shipping-bill declaration) rather than policy (the scheme disappearing outright). If you're planning shipments that straddle the September 30 window, it's worth a quick conversation with your customs broker now rather than after the fact.

If you're sourcing Basmati Rice, spices, pulses or other export categories from India and want a supplier who tracks these details as part of the process, get in touch with our export team.