What is an Electronic Bank Realization Certificate (e-BRC)?

An Electronic Bank Realization Certificate (e-BRC) is an important certificate in digital form that is required for businesses dealing with exports. An Electronic Bank Realization Certificate is issued by a bank in order to make sure that the payment was made by the buyer to the exporter for the exporting of goods and services. An Electronic Bank Realization Certificate is a vital economic indicator and an important source of financial information.

A valid Electronic Bank Realization Certificate  must be issued to those businesses that provide export benefits under FTP (Foreign Trade Policy). An Electronic Bank Realization Certificate is proof that a payment against exports has been made.

The Electronic Bank Realization Certificate  was initiated by the DGFT in order to promote paperless trade and in order to digitise Bank Realization Certificate. An Electronic Bank Realization Certificate  is an electronic document that is responsible for proving the receipts of payments made to exporters. Electronic Bank Realization Certificates are basically used to maintain systematic records of foreign trade transactions.

All the bill information of shipping is received by DGFT electronically by utilising the EDI ports. DGFT receives all the realisation details of foreign currency which may be connected to the shipping bills. In order to validate the values at which the exporter receives an incentive, information of the shipping bills and the Electronic Bank Realization Certificate details are linked.

What is the importance of Electronic Bank Realization Certificate?

 Electronic Bank Realization Certificate  was an initiative by the DGFT that deals in foreign trade. The DGFT is also known as Directorate General of Foreign Trade.  Electronic Bank Realization Certificate was initiated in order to digitise and record all the foreign trade transactions systematically. Following are some of the reasons as to why an Electronic Bank Realization Certificate is important.

• An  Electronic Bank Realization Certificate  is a valid document that is generated electronically and provides proof of the payment against the trade transactions by an exporter.
• An  Electronic Bank Realization Certificate is a great source of financial information and an economic indicator.
• It is required by any firms that want to register for the Foreign Trade Policy.
• We can simply say that an Electronic Bank Realization Certificate is proof of export.

Purpose of formation of  Electronic Bank Realization Certificate

The main purpose for the formation of  Electronic Bank Realization Certificate is that it is required by an exporter to avail various incentives related to sports like subsidies,low-cost loans, duty exemptions and so on which are provided by the government under the Foreign Trade Policy.

In India, DGFT is responsible for enforcing various export incentives of the FTP. DGFT also regulates the  Electronic Bank Realization Certificate portal and allows banks to upload all the Foreign-exchange transaction related information for all sorts of exports.

Earlier process of furnishing Electronic Bank Realization Certificate

The earlier process to furnish a Bank Realization Certificate was handled manually. An exporter was supposed to submit a Bank Realization Certificate as a hard copy to the Regional Authority of DGFT concerned and then all the details related to export transactions were entered manually. This process of furnishing a Bank Realization Certificate was quite lengthy and because of the time taken it became complicated to access export incentives.

Understanding the module of Electronic Bank Realization Certificate

In order to promote trades that were paperless, the Electronic Bank Realization Certificate was introduced by the DGFT. The Electronic Bank Realization Certificate model was set together to enable the transmission of information related to Foreign Exchange Realization electronically directly from the banks to the servers of DGFT. The use of this module also ensures security by the use of digital certificates.

With the help of Electronic Bank Realization Certificate the process to claim export incentives and the benefits availed by the DGFT has become much more easy as the exporter does not have to rush to a bank to get his Electronic Bank Realization Certificate.

On 30th June 2022, a trade notification, ‘DGFT Vide’ was announced. According to this notification, the existing model of Electronic Bank Realization Certificate will be upgraded to a new IT platform.  It has been decided that the earlier version of the Electronic Bank Realization Certificate module will be discontinued from the end of July 2022. In order to prevent any sort of difficulties for the export community, the existing users of the Electronic Bank Realization Certificate module were requested to migrate to the new platform.

The Working Rules of Electronic Bank Realization Certificate

The following listed points are some of the working principles of Electronic Bank Realization Certificate:

• XML files that contain information about Electronic Bank Realization Certificate can be generated by the staff of the bank. They can be signed digitally and can be easily uploaded on the server of DGFT either daily or two times a day at a specified frequency.
• The bank will be responsible for uploading the rupees equivalent of the foreign exchange that has been realised on the basis of exchange rates that are defined by the Central Board of Excise and Customers.
• Once the XML files have been uploaded on the server and has been acknowledged by it, the module of DGFT permits the exporters to view their Electronic Bank Realization Certificate status.

Process to view status of Electronic Bank Realization Certificate

In order to view your Electronic Bank Realization Certificate status on an online platform, you as an exporter will have to follow the following steps:

• Visit the official website of DGFT.
• On this site, you will find “Services eBRC.”
• Under this, select the option “View and print your Electronic Bank Realization Certificate.”
• You will be redirected to a new page “e-BRC Details for Trade.”
• On this page, fill your IEC and IFSC code of your bank.
• Then, click on the “Show Details” option. The details of all your Electronic Bank Realization Certificates uploaded by the bank will be displayed on the screen.
• You can take the print out of the required Electronic Bank Realization Certificate document by clicking on the “Print” option.

Process of claiming Export Incentives by using eBRC

The following process can be followed in order to claim your export benefits by using the Electronic Bank Realization Certificate:

• Go to the official website of DGFT and log in to the Electronic Bank Realization Certificate application.
• Click on the option “Uploading BRC” and upload your document.
• Once the uploaded document has been verified by the server, it will avail you the results in the form of an XML file.
• In order to enjoy the benefits of export incentives, furnish your Electronic Bank Realization Certificate as a proof of export.

Submit your Electronic Bank Realization Certificate along with your GST refund application in case of services related to exports.