Import Export Code Fees: Government Fee vs What Agents Charge

The government fee for an Import Export Code (IEC) is Rs 500, paid once on dgft.gov.in. There is no renewal fee. The yearly update is free if you do it between April and June. Anything a website or agent charges above Rs 500 is a service charge for filling the form for you. AprilTax's fee is Rs 999, plus the Rs 500 government fee.

What does the government charge?

DGFT publishes its fees in a schedule called Appendix 2K. The first line reads: application for Importer Exporter Code, five hundred rupees. You pay it online while applying. It is a processing fee, so it is not refunded if your application has a mistake, except in narrow cases such as paying more than the prescribed amount.

What about the yearly update?

Every IEC holder must update or confirm the details online each year between April and June, even when nothing has changed. A 2021 public notice made this update free within the window, and the schedule still shows it as nil.

Miss the window and two things happen. The IEC is deactivated until you complete the update. And the schedule, as amended by a public notice of 15 April 2025, lists Rs 200 for an annual update done after the stipulated period. Some fee guides still say a late update is free, so go by the amount the DGFT portal shows you at the payment step. Either way the real cost of being late is a shipment that cannot move while the code is inactive.

What does a modification cost?

If your address, bank account, partners or constitution changes, you are expected to update the IEC online within 30 days. The schedule's amendment fee is Rs 200. Many people learn about this only when a consignment is at the port and the bank on the IEC is one they closed a year ago.

So what are agents charging for?

Their time. An agent or online service fills the form, checks that your PAN, bank proof and address proof agree, uploads the files and tracks the application. That is a real service, and for a busy seller it can be worth paying for.

How much? One published fee guide from October 2026 puts typical service charges at about Rs 1,000 to Rs 4,000 on top of the Rs 500 government fee. We have not seen an official figure, because there is none: service charges are not regulated.

What matters is that the bill is clear. Ask three questions before you pay anyone:

1. Is the Rs 500 government fee included in your quote, or extra?
2. Will the application be filed on dgft.gov.in in my name, with my mobile and email on the account?
3. Do you charge anything every year? If yes, for what?

The third question matters most. The yearly update is free in April to June and takes a few minutes. A yearly "IEC renewal fee" is a charge for something the government does not ask for.

A worked example

Farhan starts exporting leather wallets in May 2026. Over the next five years he applies once, confirms his details every April, and changes his bank account once.

• Application: Rs 500
• Five yearly updates done on time: Rs 0
• One bank change: Rs 200

Total paid to the government in five years: Rs 700. If he forgets one April to June window, add Rs 200 and the days his IEC stays inactive. Now compare a service that bills Rs 1,500 every year as "renewal": Rs 7,500 over the same five years for a task that is free on time.

The mistake people usually make

They search "IEC apply online", click the first result, and pay Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 on a site that looks official. Some of these are ordinary service providers who simply do not say so clearly. Others are worse.

DGFT warned about this in a trade notice in June 2020. It said websites and email IDs were mimicking the official DGFT site, charging applicants large fees and collecting their confidential data, with some using .org, .in and .com addresses. The DGFT home page still carries a warning about spurious look-alike sites that collect money for IEC certificates.

How do you protect yourself?

• The official address is dgft.gov.in. Type it in. Do not rely on an ad.
• The official fee is Rs 500. If a site shows a different "government fee", it is not the government.
• If you use a service provider, it should say plainly that it is a private service and show its own fee separately.
• Report a suspicious site to the DGFT helpdesk on 1800-111-550.

Should you pay for help at all?

If you are a proprietor and your PAN, bank account and address proof all match, you can apply yourself for Rs 500. Our step by step guide and document checklist cover it. Pay for help when your documents need sorting out, when there are several partners or directors, or when your time is better spent on the order itself. Just pay a stated, one-time fee to someone who tells you who they are.

Frequently asked questions

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