What is BRC in DGFT? How to Get BRC from DGFT?

In 2012, e-BRC was introduced. This way DGFT automated the process of collecting a Bank Realisation Certificate. Until then, exporters had to go to the bank physically in order to acquire a Bank Realisation Certificate (BRC). 

The exporter used to send the BRC to the regional DGFT office of their area. The application for DGFT had to be manually updated and it was mandatory to include the correct BRC information. This took a lot of time and it was a very daunting task to apply for the export initiatives provided by the government. 

Now, with the introduction of e-BRC, it has become easy for exporters to get a Bank Realisation Certificate. They no longer need to visit the bank or the DGFT Authority office to get the BRC.

E-BRC stands for Electronic Bank Realisation Certificate (eBRC). It is an initiative introduced by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade to promote the paperless work of the Bank Realisation Certificate. 

It was announced that banks shall be transmitting BRC data digitally to the DGFT servers and it must include the digital signature. These BRCs conveyed online by the banks are known as e-BRC. 

In simple terms, e-BRC is an online document or electronically generated document that acts as proof of payment to the exporters against every export transaction. We can say that e-BRC is an electronic document that records foreign trade transactions in a systematic order. 

The previous e-BRC official portal was stopped back in July 2022. The DGFT has introduced a new BRC portal now and it is operating at its best. Now, it has become essential for authorised dealer banks to shift to the new DGFT e-BRC portal and upload all the necessary documents on the official portal of DGFT. 

But how does the DGFT get all the shipping bill details? The DGFT receives them via EDI ports. Moreover, DGFT receives foreign currency realisation details through the integration of banks and it can be connected to all shipping bills. Later, the information from the shipping bills and the e-BRC i.e. final payments received against the exported goods or products are connected to validate the value at which the exporter will obtain an incentive.

The working of e-BRC goes the following way. When an exporter obtains the entire export payment in the bank account between nine months of the date mentioned in the shipping bill, then they must submit the Electronic Foreign Inward Remittance certificate and necessary trade documents to their respective banks. Once the bank receives the required documents, they will carry out the process to generate the Bank Realisation Certificate. The other step that follows is the bank uploading the eBRC on the official portal of DGFT once or twice daily at a particular frequency which is already decided. 

An important role of the banks in working with e-BRC is to upload rupees that are analogous to the realised foreign exchange based on the exchange rate specified by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). Later, the XML files are uploaded to the server. Once it is done, the server is going to provide an acknowledgment to the bank notifying them about the successful upload. 

As an exporter, you will now be able to view the status of your Bank Realisation Certificate and you can print or download the e-BRCs from the DGFT website to claim export incentives as per your preferences. For example – It will help you to enjoy benefits from the MEIS License introduced to enhance Indian exports. 

Here are the steps that you can follow to check your e-BRC on the official portal of DGFT. 

• First of all, you will require visiting the official website of the DGFT.
• Once you enter the site, place a click on the ‘My Dashboard’ option. Now, the next step would be to select the ‘Repositories’ option. 
• It will take you to the next page and there you will need to click the ‘Explore’ button which you will find under the ‘Bills Repositories’ tab.
• The next step that you need to follow is to choose the option ‘Bank Realisations (e-BRC)’ from the ‘Select Bill’ drop-down list available on the page.
• It will ask you to enter the ‘From Date’ and ‘To Date’. Once you are done, click on the ‘Search’ option.
• Now you will see that all the electronic bank realisation certificates are uploaded by the banks and they are displayed on the screen.

Exporters can enjoy the incentives from the Bank Realisation Certificate through the following: 

• Exporters need to provide the shipping bill digitally on the Indian Customs Electronic Data Interchange Gateway (ICEGATE) platform. It will automatically provide all the required details about the shipping bill with the DGFT.
• Whoever owns an import-export business, they must link all the relevant shipping invoices along with the e-BRCs to assert export incentives.
• As an exporter, whenever you claim an export incentive under any DGFT scheme, the Directorate will decide the value of the incentive that you will be achieving.
• DGFT will first conform to the Free on Board value of the goods exported as it is mentioned in the bill of shipping. It will also match the total realised value against the export as per mentioned in the e-BRC and then provide the incentive to the respective exporter. 

Whenever you are applying for an export incentive, it is important for you to ensure that the bank reports the e-BRC value and it brings out the total realised value in the bill. Moreover, the bank should correct the e-BRC value if it shows less value. To understand this in a better way, you can connect with DGFT consultants. They will provide you with the correct guidance whenever you are getting a BRC.

If you are willing to enjoy benefits from your import-export business, then you need to get a BRC DGFT. Here, we have discussed everything about the Bank Realisation Certificate. Hope it helps you to know everything important related to getting a BRC for your export business.