What is Lakh and Crore?
India counts large numbers differently from most of the world. After the first thousand, digits are grouped in twos instead of threes. One lakh is 1,00,000, equal to one hundred thousand. Ten lakh is 10,00,000, equal to one million. One crore is 1,00,00,000, equal to one hundred lakh or ten million. One hundred crore is one billion.
So where an American might write 2,450,000, an Indian invoice shows 24,50,000, read as "twenty-four lakh fifty thousand". The two represent the same value; only the grouping and the words differ.
Why it matters for exporters
The new export rules are written in lakh terms, so you need to be comfortable converting. The most important example is the ₹10 lakh rule: for invoices up to ₹10 lakh (or the foreign-currency equivalent), the bank may close the EDPMS entry on your declaration that the money has been realised (Regulation 4(2)). Above ₹10 lakh, you provide the invoice, payment evidence such as a FIRA, and matching instructions.
So a USD 11,000 invoice at around ₹84 to the dollar is about ₹9.24 lakh, under the threshold, while USD 13,000 is about ₹10.92 lakh, over it. Getting the conversion and the grouping right tells you which route applies. Field 1.22 of the EDF also asks for the rupee total in figures and words, which should use lakh and crore.
Example
Opal Research Pvt Ltd invoices a US client USD 150,000 in a year, which the client reads as "one hundred fifty thousand dollars". At an illustrative ₹84, that is ₹1,26,00,000, or ₹1.26 crore. Individual monthly invoices of USD 12,500 each come to about ₹10.5 lakh, so each needs full documentation rather than the declaration route offered by the realisation declaration tool.
Common confusion
"10 lakh" is one million, not ten million. Write rupee totals carefully (see amount in words), and read the ₹10 lakh declaration.