The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has announced that the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) will now automatically issue Free Sale and Commerce Certificates through its online portal. This move is aimed at simplifying procedures for exporters and reducing delays in obtaining these official documents.
Free Sale and Commerce Certificates are required by Indian exporters for goods that fall outside the scope of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. Previously, the DGFT’s Regional Authorities had to manually review and approve each application before issuing these certificates.
How the new system works
Under the automated process, applications that meet all specified criteria will be approved immediately without human review. The DGFT portal will process these eligible applications directly and issue certificates automatically.
Not all applications will receive automatic approval. Those that do not fit the automated processing criteria, or which require additional verification, will still be sent to the relevant Regional Authority for manual examination. Additionally, some auto-approved certificates may be flagged by the system’s risk management checks and sent back to authorities for review if needed.
What this means for you
If you are an exporter seeking a Free Sale and Commerce Certificate for non-pharma or non-cosmetic products, your application should now be processed much faster. Those whose applications meet all requirements will receive their certificates without waiting for manual scrutiny. This reduces both the time taken and the paperwork burden involved in the earlier system. However, if your application requires verification or falls outside the automatic processing framework, you will still need to go through the standard Regional Authority review process as before.