From 1 October 2026, exporters of services in India declare their exports on the Export Declaration Form (EDF) and give it to what the rules call the specified authority: for most, the bank where the foreign money arrives. The deadline is 30 days from the end of the month in which the invoice was raised, so invoices raised in October 2026 are declared by 30 November 2026. One EDF can cover every client you invoiced that month.
Update, 8 October 2026: individuals. At RBI’s post-policy press conference on 7 October, Governor Sanjay Malhotra said individuals providing services abroad, such as tutoring or small software work, and getting paid for it, are not required to report, and Deputy Governor Rohit Jain said individuals are not included in the reporting requirements for contracts of a personal nature. RBI will issue FAQs, and the Regulations’ text has not changed. If you earn as an individual, wait for the FAQs or ask your bank before filing. The rest of this guide applies in full to firms and companies that export services.
What the EDF is
It is the form in the Annex to the Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2026, notified by RBI as FEMA 23(R)/2026-RB on 13 January 2026. They came into force on 1 October 2026 (regulation 1(2)), superseding the 2015 Regulations, and one two-page form now serves goods and services. Regulation 3(2) sets the duty:
An exporter of services shall furnish to the specified authority, a declaration in EDF specifying the amount representing the full export value of services, within 30 days from the end of month in which invoice for services has been raised.
Asked, while the rules were in draft, to exempt service exports, RBI refused: section 7 of FEMA, 1999 “makes declaration of exports mandatory”. It made the process and the timeframe flexible instead.
Who files it, and where it goes
Money of these kinds is typically received as payment for services supplied abroad:
- fees from foreign clients, paid directly or through a platform such as Upwork or Fiverr
- consulting fees and agency retainers from overseas clients
- software and SaaS subscriptions paid by customers abroad
- earnings from YouTube, AdSense and similar platforms
For a firm or a company, all of these are exports of services. For an individual, see the update at the top: RBI has said individuals providing services abroad are not required to report.
Where it goes. Under regulation 2(1)(f), the specified authority for services other than software is an Authorised Dealer: your bank, where the foreign payment lands. For software it is an Authorised Dealer or Software Technology Parks of India (STPI). Units in a Special Economic Zone file with the zone’s Development Commissioner.
Services or software? The Regulations define software widely: “any computer programme, database, drawing, design, audio/video signals, any information by whatever name called in or on any medium other than in or on any physical medium”. If your work counts as software, STPI is named alongside your bank, and filing on the date of payment (below) is not open to you. Your bank decides which way your receipts are read, under its internal policy, so ask before your first filing.
The deadline
The 30 days run from the end of the month in which the invoice was raised, not from the invoice date:
| Invoices raised in | EDF due by |
|---|---|
| October 2026 | 30 November 2026 |
| November 2026 | 30 December 2026 |
| December 2026 | 30 January 2027 |
Two provisos to regulation 3(2) loosen it. An exporter of services other than software “may submit an EDF on or before the date of receipt of payment”. And if you are late, the bank may extend the period on a request giving reasons, once satisfied that it is reasonable.
One EDF a month, however many clients
Regulation 3(2)(a) lets an exporter who has exported services “to one or more recipients in a month” submit “a single EDF for all such exports”. Part 2B takes one row per invoice. (For the invoices themselves, our export invoice prints the endorsement GST asks for, the country and the currency.)
Say you freelance from Pune, and in October 2026 you invoice two clients abroad: €1,200 to a studio in Berlin on 6 October and US$900 to a company in Austin on 21 October. Both go on one EDF, as two rows of Part 2B, each in its own currency, due by 30 November 2026.
YouTube, AdSense and other platforms
If you earn from these as an individual, RBI’s remarks of 7 October (see the update at the top) suggest you may not need to file at all, though neither official named YouTube or AdSense; the FAQs should settle it. For a business that does file, the 30 days count from the month in which the invoice was raised, but YouTube and AdSense pay on their own statements, not against an invoice from you. What your bank accepts as the invoice reference is its decision under its internal policy, as is whether your receipts are services or software, whose definition includes “audio/video signals”. Ask before the first filing.
Filling it in, part by part
You fill in Parts 1, 2B and 4. Parts 2A and 3 are for goods and Part 5 is for the bank or STPI, so leave them blank.
Part 1, General Information, is mostly about you and your bank:
- Type of export reads “Goods/Service”: yours is Service. Mode of Transport/Delivery has an “Internet” box for work delivered online.
- Your details: name, address, PAN, and your IE Code and GSTIN if you have them. If not, ask the bank what it wants in those boxes.
- AD name, address and AD code: your bank’s. The branch can tell you its AD code.
- Mode of Realisation: L/C (letter of credit), BG (bank guarantee) or Others, which the form describes as “advance payment, etc. including transfer/remittance to bank a/c maintained overseas”. If you are not paid under an L/C or a BG, it is Others.
- Third party: only if someone other than your client pays you, with your relationship to them.
- Description of services, and the total value in words, in rupees.
- Category of Exporter: Custom (DTA units), SEZ, 100% EOU, Warehouse export or others. If none clearly fits, ask the bank. The shipping bill, port and Let Export Order (LEO) boxes are for goods.
Part 2B, Details of Export Value of Services: one row per invoice of the month, with the client’s name, address and country; the invoice number, date, currency and amount; the net realisable value; the contract number and date, if any; a description of the services; the SAC code; and remarks. If you do not know which SAC code fits your work, ask your CA rather than guess.
Part 4, the declaration. You declare the particulars true, and undertake to deliver the foreign exchange or rupees for the full value to the bank “on or before” a date that the form says is “within the period of realisation stipulated by RBI from time to time”, and to give the bank documents when required. As the form’s note says, “Strike out whichever is not applicable” (“I/We”, “am/are”, “have delivered/will deliver” and the rest), then date and sign.
The EDF form page fills this in from your details, laid out as in RBI’s Annex: Part 2B from a list of the month’s invoices, and the declaration with the words that do not apply struck out. It downloads as a PDF or a Word file, and there is a blank EDF in PDF or in Word to fill by hand. Both are in English, as RBI’s Annex is. Each bank sets its own channel (branch, net banking or email), covering letter and documents, so check with yours first.
Nine months to bring the money in
Under regulation 5(1)(a), the full export value has to be realised and repatriated, meaning received and brought into India, within nine months from the date of invoice, or twelve months where the export is invoiced or settled in Indian rupees. The Regulations as notified in January said fifteen months; an amendment of 22 September 2026 (Notification No. FEMA 23(R)/(1)/2026-RB, published in the Gazette on 24 September) made it nine before the rules took effect.
In the example above, the Berlin invoice has until 6 July 2027 and the Austin invoice until 21 July 2027. If a client is slow to pay, talk to your bank before the nine months run out: under regulation 5(1), it may extend the period on your request if it is satisfied with the reasons.
The ₹10 lakh declaration
Within five working days of receiving your EDF, the bank enters it in EDPMS, the Export Data Processing and Monitoring System (regulation 18(1)(b)). For an invoice of up to ₹10 lakh, or its equivalent in foreign currency, regulation 4(2) lets the bank close that entry on your declaration that the payment “has been realised either in full or otherwise”, and you can give that declaration once a quarter “for bulk closure of entries in EDPMS”. If each of your invoices is ₹10 lakh or less, one declaration a quarter is the least paperwork.
It is not a tax form
The EDF is a foreign-exchange declaration under FEMA. It is separate from income tax and GST, which have their own rules; take those to your CA.
What to ask your bank before the first EDF
RBI sets the form and the deadlines. Asked to keep the Memorandum of Instructions on Project and Service Exports, it declined and left banks to handle these transactions under their own internal policy. Regulation 19 says that policy must list the documents, timelines and charges for each process, and that the bank must publish its main features on its website, so look there first. The charges must be reasonable, and the bank may not levy charges or a penalty on you for a regulatory delay or violation on your part. Then ask:
- How it takes the EDF (branch, net banking or email), and what it wants with it.
- Whether it treats your receipts as services or as software.
- If a platform pays you on its own statement, what it accepts as the invoice reference.
- Which exchange rate to use for the rupee total, and how to show fees taken off before the money reaches you.
- If the money comes through a platform or payment company, whether it wants the third-party details.
- The format it wants for the ₹10 lakh declaration, per invoice or quarterly.
- What to do about invoices raised before 1 October 2026 that are still unpaid.
Keep a copy of every EDF you file, with its invoices. For the news in brief, see what changed for service exports on 1 October 2026.
Sources
- Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2026, RBI Notification No. FEMA 23(R)/2026-RB, 13 January 2026, as amended up to 22 September 2026 (Notification No. FEMA 23(R)/(1)/2026-RB). Regulations 1(2), 2(1)(c), 2(1)(e), 2(1)(f), 3(2), 4(2), 5(1), 18(1)(b) and 19.
- Export Declaration Form, the Annex to the Regulations: the form itself.
- Statement on feedback received, the Annex to RBI Press Release 2025-2026/1933 of 16 January 2026.
- RBI clears the air on new forex reporting rules: Framework does not apply to individuals, BusinessToday, 7 October 2026, and Personal service transactions need no reporting under new forex rules, Business Standard, 7 October 2026: the Governor’s and the Deputy Governor’s remarks at the post-policy press conference.