Status House Certificate

Status Holders are business leaders who have excelled in international trade and have successfully contributed to country’s foreign trade. Status Holders are expected to not only contribute towards India’s exports but also provide guidance and handholding to new entrepreneurs.

All exporters of goods, services and technology having an import- export code (IEC) number shall be eligible for recognition as a status holder. Status recognition will depend on export performance. An applicant shall be categorized as status holder on achieving export performance during the current and previous three financial years (for Gems& Jewellery Sector the performance during the current and previous two financial years shall be considered for recognition as status holder) as indicated in paragraph 3.21 of Foreign Trade Policy. The export performance will be counted on the basis of FOB of export earning in freely convertible foreign currencies

For deemed export, FOR value of exports in Indian Rupees shall be converted in US$ at the exchange rate notified by CBEC, as applicable on 1st April of each Financial Year.

For granting status, export performance is necessary in at least two out of four years.

Status Category

All exporters of goods, services and technology having an import-export code (IEC) number, on the date of application, shall be eligible for recognition as a status holder based on export performance. An applicant may be categorized as status holder on achieving the threshold export performance in the current and preceding three financial years as indicated in para 1.26 of Foreign Trade Policy.

For granting status, an export performance would be necessary in all the three preceding financial years (and in all the two preceding financial years for Gems & Jewelry Sector).

Grant of Double Weightage

1. The exports by IEC holders under the following categories shall be granted double weightage for calculation of export performance for grant of status.
   1. Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) as defined in Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act 2006.
   2. Manufacturing units having ISO/BIS.
   3. Units located in North Eastern States including Sikkim and Jammu & Kashmir.
   4. Units located in Agri Export Zones.
2. Double Weightage shall be available for grant of One Star Export House Status category only. Such benefit of double weightage shall not be admissible for grant of status recognition of other categories namely Two Star Export House, Three Star Export House, Four Star export House and Five Star Export House.
3. A shipment can get double weightage only once in any one of above categories.

Other conditions for grant of status

1. Export performance of one IEC holder shall not be permitted to be transferred to another IEC holder. Hence, calculation of exports performance based on disclaimer shall not be allowed.
2. Exports made on re-export basis shall not be counted for recognition.
3. Export of items under Authorisation, including SCOMET items, would be included for calculation of export performance.

Privileges of Status Holders

A Status Holder shall be eligible for privileges as under:

1. Authorisation and Customs Clearances for both imports and exports may be granted on self-declaration basis;
2. Input-Output norms may be fixed on priority within 60 days by the Norms Committee ;Special scheme in respect of Input Output Norms to be notified by DGFT from time to time, for specified status holder
3. Exemption from furnishing of Bank Guarantee for Schemes under FTP, unless specified otherwise anywhere in FTP or HBP;
4. Exemption from compulsory negotiation of documents through banks. Remittance/receipts, however, would be received through banking channels;
5. Two star and above Export houses shall be permitted to establish Export Warehouses as per Department of Revenue guidelines.
6. Three Star and above Export House shall be entitled to get benefit of Accredited Clients Programme (ACP) as per the guidelines of CBEC (website: http://cbec.gov.in).
7. The status holders would be entitled to preferential treatment and priority in handling of their consignments by the concerned agencies.
8. Manufacturers who are also status holders (Three Star/Four Star/Five Star) will be enabled to self-certify their manufactured goods (as per their IEM/IL/LOI) as originating from India with a view to qualify for preferential treatment under different preferential trading agreements (PTA), Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreements (CECA) and Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPA). Subsequently, the scheme may be extended to remaining Status Holders.
9. Manufacturer exporters who are also Status Holders shall be eligible to self-certify their goods as originating from India as per Para 2.108 (d) of Hand Book of Procedures.
10. Status holders shall be entitled to export freely exportable items (excluding Gems and Jewellery, Articles of Gold and precious metals) on free of cost basis for export promotion subject to an annual limit of Rupees One Crore or 2% of average annual export realization during preceding three licensing years, whichever is lower. For export of pharma products by pharmaceutical companies, the annual limit would be 2% of the average annual export realisation during preceding three licensing years. In case of supplies of pharmaceutical products, vaccines and lifesaving drugs to health programmes of international agencies such as UN, WHO-PAHO and Government health programmes, the annual limit shall be up to 8% of the average annual export realisation during preceding three licensing years. Such free of cost supplies shall not be entitled to Duty Drawback or any other export incentive under any export promotion scheme.

Automatic System based issue of Status Holder Certificate (e-SHC) with no requirement of filing any application by the exporter : In furtherance of the e-Governance initiatives being taken by DGFT, a new IT module to recognize and certify the export performance of individual companies has been developed. Henceforth, the Status Holder Certificate (SHC) will be electronically generated based on export data available in DGCI&S database. The individual exporters will be divided into the five Status categories based on available merchandise export figures from EDI, non EDI Ports and SEZ ports as per the eligibility criterion in Foreign Trade Policy 2023. As a result there will be no requirement by the exporter to file any kind of application and the e-SHC, for a particular status category will be generated automatically by IT system. This will eliminate the earlier process of submission of an online application with supporting performance certificate from a Chartered Accountant and will also do away with the file examination required at the DGFT Regional Offices and use existing data elements available within the Government for export certification.

The e-SHC will be made available to the exporting entity in their registered email and the customer dashboard @ DGFT portal (https://www.dgft.gov.in/CP/)/ by 15th of August each year. The data set used for Status categorization will be the merchandise export performance of the preceding 3 financial years or the preceding 2 financial years (in case of gems and jewelry sector) plus the 3 month export data from April to June of the current financial year.

i) As the export figures pertaining to services exports, deemed exports and double weightage exports (as admissible under para 1.27 of FTP 2023) are not being compiled by DCCI&S, there will be a few cases where this facility of automatic e-SHC cannot be extended. All such exporters who do not receive their e-SHCs within 48 hours of issue of this Trade Notice will need to make an application, if not already made, for grant of Status Certificate as per the FTP 2023 provisions in the existing IT module along with supporting CA certificate.

ii) Further, all already filed pending/in-process Status applications under FTP 2023 will be scrutinized by the IT system for auto-issuance of Status Holder Certificate where the applied Status category is the same as identified by the system. Such Files will be shown as 'closed' after auto-issue.

iii) It is being reiterated that all Status Holder Certificates issued under FTP 2015-20 will remain valid till 30th September 2023 only as provided under para 1.09 of HBP 2023 and any IEC holder willing to avail the Status Holder Certificate under the FTP 2023, and who is not getting covered under the new mechanism of automatic issue, will need to apply online to the concerned jurisdictional RAs of DGFT as per para 1.08 of HBP 2023.

Application for grant of Status Certificate

1. Status Certificates issued under FTP 2009-14 to an IEC holder shall remain valid till 30th September, 2015 or till the issuance of status certificate to such IEC holder under FTP 2015-20, whichever is earlier.
2. Applicants shall be required to file an application online for recognition of status under the Policy in ANF 3C. Scanned copy of relevant prescribed documents shall be uploaded by the applicant unless prescribed otherwise.
3. Online Application for status certificate shall be filed using digital signature with jurisdictional RA/Development Commissioner (DC) by Registered Office in the case of Company and by Head Office in the case of others as indicated in table below:

Validity of status certificate

A Status Holder Certificate is vaild for a period of 5 yeras from the date of issuance of the Status Holder Certificate or Untill the validity of the Foreign Trade Policy, Whichever is earlier.

Maintenance of Accounts

Status Holders shall maintain true and proper accounts of its exports and imports based on which such recognition has been granted. Records shall be maintained for a period of two years from the date of grant of status certificate. These accounts shall be made available for inspection to RA concerned or any Authority nominated by DGFT.

Refusal/Suspension/Cancellation of Certificate

Status Certificate may be refused/suspended/cancelled by RA concerned, if status holder or authorized representative acting on his behalf:

1. Fails to discharge export obligation imposed;
2. Tampers with Authorisations;
3. Misrepresents or has been a party to any corrupt or fraudulent practice in obtaining any Authorisation;
4. Commits a breach of FT (D& R) Act, or Rules, Orders made there under and FTP, The Customs Act 1962, The Central Excise Act 1944, FEMA Act 1999 and COFEPOSA Act 1974; or
5. Fails to furnish information required by this Directorate.

A reasonable opportunity shall be given to Status Holder before taking any action under this paragraph.

Appeal

An applicant, who is not satisfied with decision taken to suspend or cancel Status Certificate, may file an appeal to DGFT within 45 days. Decision of DGFT shall be final and binding thereon.