CaratDGFT drops the RCMC requirement on exports under ₹3 lakh
Notification 36/2026-27 amends paragraph 2.57 of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, effective 15 September. Consignments up to USD 3,000 were 43% of India's shipping bills and 0.86% of export value from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
The certificate stops applying. Export consignments with an FOB value up to ₹3,00,000 are exempt from the Registration-cum-Membership Certificate, with immediate effect from 15 September.
If you ship jewellery by post or courier: Consignments at or under ₹3,00,000 clear without an RCMC.
If you sell council membership: The compliance reason to join now starts above ₹3,00,000.
What this is not: A duty change. This is registration paperwork, not tariff.
| Consignment FOB value | Before 15 September | From 15 September |
|---|---|---|
| Up to ₹3,00,000 | RCMC or Certificate of Registration required where otherwise applicable | Not required |
| Above ₹3,00,000 | Required where otherwise applicable | Required where otherwise applicable |
| Instrument | Paragraph 2.57, Foreign Trade Policy 2023 | Paragraph 2.57(c), as inserted |
IThe ceiling is per consignment
One shipment, one test. The ₹3 lakh ceiling, written as ₹3,00,000 in the notification, is measured on the free-on-board value of the individual consignment, not the exporter's turnover.
Above it, nothing changes. Consignments over ₹3,00,000 still need a valid RCMC wherever the Foreign Trade Policy otherwise requires one.
IISmall parcels, small money
Small parcels dominate filings. Government figures for 2021-22 to 2025-26 put consignments up to USD 3,000 at 43% of India's shipping bills.
The money is small. The same consignments were 0.86% of merchandise export value.
Paperwork, not value. That pairing is the case the notification rests on: a large share of the filing burden attached to a small share of the money.
IIIThe council's own magazine carried it
GJEPC published it. The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council carried the notification in its own magazine, Solitaire.
The headline named it. Solitaire ran it as "DGFT Waives RCMC Requirement for Small-Value Export Consignments".
01What would change this call+
A superseding notification, or a channel-specific carve-out. Paragraph 2.57 has been amended by notice before and can be amended again, and nothing in this one fixes the threshold for a stated period.
02What an RCMC is+
A Registration-cum-Membership Certificate is issued by an export promotion council or a commodity board and evidences that an exporter is registered with the body covering its product. Under the Foreign Trade Policy it is a precondition for claiming authorisations and benefits, and in practice it is the document a customs filing is expected to carry where a council covers the goods. It is a registration, not a licence to export and not a tariff instrument: an exporter without one is not barred from shipping, but is outside the scheme benefits the certificate unlocks. Paragraph 2.57 is the clause that imposes it.
03Method · the desk’s arithmetic+
The notification text was read at Taxguru's reproduction of Notification No. 36/2026-27, fetched directly on 20 September 2026, which carries the operative sentence quoted in the table note, the 15 September 2026 date, and the amendment to paragraph 2.57 of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 by the insertion of a sub-paragraph (c). Business Standard's report of 16 September confirms the same instrument and the same threshold. The 43% and 0.86% shares are not in the notification and are not presented as though they were: they are government figures quoted in The Tribune's 16 September report, fetched directly, covering 2021-22 to 2025-26 and measured on a USD 3,000 band rather than the rupee threshold. The Associated News International carriage of the same figures returned 403 and was not used. The gem-and-jewellery connection is not this desk's inference: the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council carried the notification in its own magazine, Solitaire, at the address in the sources. The Solitaire page body did not render for extraction, so nothing is quoted from it beyond its published headline, and no figure is taken from it. ARCHIVE: the RCMC and Notification 36/2026-27 - greps of the built archive for RCMC and for the rupee threshold returned zero hits on both. Related Indian export-policy coverage exists, the hallmarking fee of 2026-09-17 and GJEPC's Hong Kong pavilion of 2026-09-18, but neither touches registration certificates and neither covers this period or this instrument. NEW.
04Sources4 documents
- DGFT Notification No. 36/2026-27, full text, Taxguru, 15 September 2026 ↗
- Govt removes RCMC requirement for exports up to Rs 3 lakh, The Tribune, 16 September 2026 ↗
- DGFT Waives RCMC Requirement for Small-Value Export Consignments, Solitaire (GJEPC), September 2026 ↗
- Government eases RCMC requirement for export consignments up to Rs 3 lakh, Business Standard, 16 September 2026 ↗
India raises gold hallmarking fee to Rs 75 an article
The other Indian compliance cost moved this month, in the opposite direction.
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