India cuts the time exporters have to bring home export earnings to nine months from 1 October 2026

India cuts the time exporters have to bring home export earnings to nine months from 1 October 2026

30 September 2026 —

Not yet independently verified. This rests on the Reserve Bank of India’s own notification and consolidated regulations; no independent report was checked. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

The Reserve Bank of India has shortened the deadline for exporters to bring money home. Notification FEMA 23(R)/(1)/2026-RB is dated 22 September 2026 and was published in the Gazette on 24 September. It comes into force on 1 October 2026 and amends regulation 5 of the Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2026. That regulation sets how long an exporter has to realise and repatriate the full value of an export.

What changes

Export	Until 30 September 2026	From 1 October 2026
Goods (from the date of shipment) and services (from the date of invoice)	15 months	9 months
Goods exported to a warehouse outside India (from the date of sale)	15 months	9 months
Exports invoiced or settled in Indian rupees	18 months	12 months
Project exports	as per the contract	unchanged

The amendment also makes two other changes. Exporters on the RBI's Caution List on 30 September 2026 stay under their existing orders until they are removed from the list. And from 1 October, Authorised Dealer banks, not the RBI, handle export, import and merchanting transactions made before that date that used to need RBI approval.

Why software and services firms should care

Most of India's software, IT services, BPO and freelance export income is billed as services, and the clock for services starts on the invoice date. An invoice raised to a foreign client on 1 October 2026 must now be paid and repatriated within nine months, by about the start of July 2027, not by the end of the following year.

Services exporters who give overseas clients long credit terms, or who carry old unpaid invoices, are most exposed. Unrealised export entries show up in the banks' export monitoring system (EDPMS), and the regulations already let a bank extend the period when an exporter asks and gives reasons.

What to do

• Check your contracts. Payment terms longer than nine months, or milestone billing that leaves invoices open for a long time, no longer fit.
• Age your receivables against the new limit and chase anything that will cross nine months.
• Talk to your Authorised Dealer bank early about any invoice likely to be late. The regulations allow it to grant an extension if you ask and give reasons.
• Buyers who contract Indian vendors should expect firmer payment terms and quicker collection.

The change applies to exports from 1 October 2026. The notification does not say how invoices raised before that date will be treated.

Sources

• Reserve Bank of India: Notification No. FEMA 23(R)/(1)/2026-RB — Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and Services) (Amendment) Regulations, 2026 — 22 September 2026
• Reserve Bank of India: Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2026 (FEMA 23(R)/2026-RB), amended up to 22 September 2026 — 24 September 2026