Good News for Exporters! CBIC Makes Bank Account and IFSC Code Approval Easier

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has recently announced a new update for exporters that aims to speed up the process of registering bank accounts and IFSC codes across various customs locations for receiving IGST refunds or duty drawback.

Earlier, the exporters had to apply at every customs port to get their bank account and IFSC code approved through the ICEGATE portal. Even if it was already approved at one port, it still needed a manual approval at other customs ports. It was very time-consuming and led to delays in receiving refunds.

As per the CBIC circular dated October 7, 2025, the board, in consultation with the Directorate General of Systems, has reviewed the IFSC code approval requests at different ports. To simplify this time-consuming process, the board has come up with a system that will automatically approve the registration of the same incentive bank account and IFSC code for an Importer Exporter Code (IEC) at other customs locations if it has already been approved at any one location.

This means if an exporter has already registered a bank account and IFSC code at one customs location, and it has been approved, then the same will be automatically approved at other ports as well. Therefore, there will be no need to manually approve it again.

This change focuses on making the process faster, reducing delays, and providing a smoother experience for exporters.

The circular clearly says that the current process of submitting requests will still be the same on the ICEGATE portal. The change is only for the above-mentioned cases, in which the system will automatically approve the request without sending it to the Port officer for manual approval. After system approval, the request will be sent to PFMS (Public Financial Management System) for validation.

CBIC has also said in the circular that if anyone faces problems with the new system, they can inform the Board to get it solved.