DGFT Clarifies UIN Timeline and Interest Subvention Eligibility for Export Credit Under EPM Niryat Protsahan Scheme
Background and Context
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has issued Trade Notice No. 03/2026-27 dated 13 May 2026, bringing important clarifications and amendments to the framework governing Interest Subvention Support for Pre- and Post-Shipment Export Credit under the Export Promotion Mission (EPM) – Niryat Protsahan scheme.
These amendments address a set of practical difficulties that arose during the rollout of the Unique Identification Number (UIN) mechanism, which replaced the earlier UDIN-based Equalisation Intervention Scheme (EIS). The transition exposed operational gaps across lending institutions, prompting representations from industry stakeholders seeking regulatory relief and procedural clarity.
Why These Amendments Were Necessary
Operational Challenges During Scheme Transition
When the EPM Interest Subvention framework was introduced through a series of Trade Notices — namely Trade Notice No. 20/2025-26 dated 02.01.2026, Trade Notice No. 22/2025-26 dated 16.01.2026, Trade Notice No. 33/2025-26 dated 20.03.2026, and Trade Notice No. 01/2026-27 dated 20.04.2026 — the expectation was that lending banks would seamlessly integrate the UIN-based claim reporting system into their workflows.
However, the ground reality was considerably more complex. The implementation required:
- Onboarding of multiple financial institutions simultaneously onto a new digital platform
- Development of internal banking workflows tailored to UIN validation requirements
- Technical alignment of back-end systems to enable claim processing mapped to individual UINs
This multi-layered implementation process resulted in non-uniform adoption across banks, with several institutions encountering procedural bottlenecks that were not anticipated at the time the scheme was launched.
Specific Industry Problems Highlighted
DGFT received representations identifying two distinct scenarios where eligible exporters were being inadvertently excluded from interest subvention benefits:
Scenario A: A UDIN had been generated under the erstwhile IES Scheme, but the actual credit disbursement occurred on or after 02.01.2026 — the date from which the EPM framework became operative.
Scenario B: Export credit was disbursed on or after 02.01.2026, but due to technical or procedural constraints, the UIN could not be generated prior to the date of disbursal.
In both cases, the exporter would have otherwise been eligible for interest subvention support but was denied relief solely on account of timing mismatches in UIN generation — a situation arising from systemic challenges rather than any failure on the part of the exporter.