What is Exporter?
An exporter is anyone in India who sells goods or provides services to someone abroad. For goods, that means sending products out of the country. For services, the work may never physically leave India: a developer in Bengaluru building software for a client in Boston is exporting a service even though the code travels over the internet.
Exporters come in every shape: companies, LLPs, partnership firms, sole proprietorships and individual freelancers.
Why it matters for exporters
The EDF is filed by the exporter. Field 1.11 in Part 1 asks for the exporter's name and address, and nearby fields ask for identifiers such as the IE code (1.7), GSTIN (1.8) and PAN (1.9). These should match your bank account, GST registration and IEC, if you have one.
Who counts as an exporter for EDF purposes is partly unsettled. Proprietorships, firms, LLPs and companies should assume the 2026 Regulations cover them. For individuals, RBI's Governor said at the 7 October 2026 press conference that individuals providing services abroad are not required to report, and RBI said FAQs would follow. Until those FAQs are out, individuals should check with their bank.
Software exporters outside an SEZ can file with their AD bank or STPI; other service exporters outside an SEZ file with their AD bank; SEZ units file with the Development Commissioner.
Example
Three friends each earn from foreign clients. Neha runs Neha Web Studio as a proprietorship and invoices a US client ₹6,50,000 equivalent in October 2026, so she files an EDF with her AD bank by 30 November. Arjun's company, Arcline Tech Pvt Ltd, does the same with its bank. Kabir tutors students abroad in his personal capacity and waits for RBI's FAQs, checking with his bank meanwhile. Start yours with the EDF form generator.
Common confusion
The exporter and the declarant are not quite the same: the exporter is the business, the declarant is the person who signs for it. See who must file the EDF.