Government of India
Ministry of Commerce & Industry
Department of Commerce
Directorate General of Foreign Trade
Dated: 9th October, 2023
Trade Notice No. 28/2023-24
Subject: Automatic System based issue of Status Holder
Certificate (e-SHC) with no requirement of filing any application by the
exporter- reg
In furtherance of the e-Governance initiatives being taken by DGFT, a new IT
module to recognize and certify the export performance of individual companies
has been developed. Henceforth, the Status Holder Certificate (SHC) will' be
electronically generated based on export data available in DGCI&S database. The
individual exporters will be divided into the five Status categories based on
available merchandise export figures from EDI, non EDI Ports and SEZ ports as
per the eligibility criterion in Foreign Trade Policy 2023. As a result there
will be no requirement by the exporter to file any kind of application and the
e-SHC, for a particular status category will be generated automatically by the
IT system. This will eliminate the earlier process of submission of an online
application with supporting export performance certificate from a Chartered
Accountant and will also do away with the file examination required at the DGFT
Regional Offices and use existing data elements available within the Government
for export certification.
2. The e-SHC will be made available to the exporting entity
in their registered email and the customer dashboard @ DGFTportal (https://www.dgft.gov.in/CP/),
after necessary IT iterations, by 15th of August each year. The data set used
for the Status categorization will be tbe merchandise export performance of the
preceding 3 financial years or the preceding 2 financial years (in case of gems
and jewelry sector) plus the 3 month export data from April to June of the
current financial year.
i) As the export figures pertaining to services exports, deemed exports and
double weightage exports (as admissible under
para 1.27 of FTP 2023) are not
being compiled by DGCI&S, there will be a few cases where this facility of
automatic e-SHC cannot be extended. All such exporters who do not receive their
e-SHCs within 48 hours of issue of this Trade Notice will need to make an
application, if not already made, for grant of Status Certificate as per the FTP
2023 provisions in the existing IT module along with supporting CA certificate.
ii) Further, all already filed pending/in-process Status applications under FTP 2023 will be scrutinizedby the IT system for auto-issuance of Status Holder Certificate wherethe applied Status category is the same as identified by the system. Such Files will be shown as 'closed' after auto-issue.
iii) Keeping in view that certain export data is not getting captured online as in i) above, there will be some cases where the e-SHC of a exporting entity, which has been automatically generated, is of a lower Status category than which it is otherwise eligible after adding the export performance of services export and/or deemed export. In such a scenario, for upgrading the Status certificate, the IEC holder will need to move an amendment application at the DGFT portal as per para 1.08 of HBP 2023. On issue of a new SHC with a higher/upgraded Status category by the DGFT Regional Office, the earlier e-SHC certificate will be automatically cancelled by the IT system.
iv) DGFT Regional Offices are requested to expedite
processing such applications as in i) and iii) above and seek additional
documents from the exporting entities only in exceptional cases after permission
from the Head of Office.
4. It is being reiterated that all Status Holder Certificates issued under FTP
2015-20 will remain valid till 30th September 2023 only as provided under
para
1.09 of HBP 2023 and any IEC holder willing to avail the Status Holder
Certificate under the FTP 2023, and who is not getting covered under the new
mechanism of automatic issue, will need to apply online to the concerned
jurisdictional RAs of DGFT as per para 1.08 of HBP 2023.
5. For guidance on these new processes, the Help manual & FAQs may be accessed at https://dgft.gov.in > Learn > 'Application Help & FAQs'. For any further assistance you may utilize any of the following channels-
• Raise a service request ticket through the DGFT Helpdesk service under Services > 'Trade Helpdesk Service'
• Call the toll-free Helpdesk number
• Send an email to the Helpdesk on dgftedi@gov.in
Any difficulty/challenge faced in implementation may be brought to notice to this Directorate.
(Deepak Jhalani)
Deputy Director General of Foreign Trade
Policy 3 Division
To,
1. EPCs/FIEO
2. All DGFT RAs
3. Members of Trade and Industry
[Issued from F.No. 01/61/180/086/AM24/PC-3]