The one page that decides how an IEC application runs is the address proof for your Bengaluru premises. DGFT reads the address you type into the form against the document sitting behind it. A lease still in a founder's personal name is enough to stall it. So is an electricity bill carrying the previous tenant, or a rent agreement that lapsed two months ago. A file with one of those comes back as a query, not as a code. Sort that page out first. What follows it is mechanical.
Does your Bengaluru business actually need an IEC, or does the GST number cover it?
The GST registration and the import export code do different jobs. Customs reads the code on a shipping bill or a bill of entry, and the GST number does not stand in. If goods leave or enter India in your name, the code has to exist before the consignment moves.
Services are the grey area, and a large part of this city sits in it. A software or business process firm paid by wire for exported services often has no code and does not yet need one. The code becomes necessary once a Foreign Trade Policy benefit is claimed, and some banks want it on file anyway. We read your remittance pattern before you pay for a filing you may not need.
DGFT issues one code against one PAN, so the entity holds it rather than the founder. A Chickpet proprietorship that converts into a private limited company applies fresh, because the company has its own PAN. The code is also not permission to trade here. It sits alongside your establishment registration under the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1961, which is filed on e-Karmika. It sits alongside the trade licence the Commissioner of your city corporation grants under section 303 of the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024. The national rules behind the code are the same in every state, and our complete IEC registration guide for India sets them out.
What has to be ready before you apply?
Assemble these before anyone opens the portal. A half ready file is what turns a two day job into a two week one.
- The entity's PAN, with the incorporation certificate, LLP agreement or partnership deed that belongs to it.
- Address proof for the premises you are declaring: a current lease in the entity's name, a recent utility bill, or a khata or tax receipt where the property is your own.
- A cancelled cheque or bank certificate for a current account in the exact name of the entity, because that name and the PAN name have to read the same.
- The signatory's Aadhaar linked mobile number and email for one time password verification, or a class 3 digital signature where the entity signs with one.
- A board resolution or authorisation letter naming the person who signs, for a company or an LLP.
Two traps show up again and again. Shared desks are common here, and a desk agreement is often too thin to serve as address proof, so ask the operator for a signed agreement carrying your entity name and the unit. And if you moved from Koramangala to Whitefield without updating your other records, correct those first. Two official records that disagree are the fastest route to a query.
Filing an IEC from a Bengaluru address, step by step
- Reconciliation. We line up the entity name, the PAN, the bank account name and the premises address before a single field is typed.
- Portal registration. The signatory registers on the DGFT portal as an importer or exporter and verifies the mobile number and email by one time password.
- Application and upload. Entity details, branch and factory addresses, bank particulars and the signatory proofs go in, with documents attached in the format the portal accepts.
- Signing and payment. The application is signed with the Aadhaar based option or a class 3 digital signature, and the government fee is paid online in the same session.
- Issue, or a query answered. The code generates electronically and reaches you by email. Where something does not match, we answer the query rather than starting again.
Which authority holds your file, and what can it ask for later?
DGFT maintains a Regional Authority at Bengaluru, and it is the only DGFT regional authority in Karnataka. IEC applications, amendments, deficiency letters and Foreign Trade Policy benefit claims for businesses here route through it. The nearest others are Chennai, Coimbatore, Kochi and Hyderabad. None of this needs a visit, because the application, the amendment and the yearly update are all electronic.
Customs is the other half of the answer, and the map surprises people. Bengaluru City Customs covers the whole of Karnataka except the regions under the Commissioner of Customs at Mangaluru, and its work takes in ICD Whitefield and the Foreign Post Office. Air consignments run through a dedicated Principal Commissionerate of Customs, Airport and Air Cargo Complex, which supervises Kempegowda International Airport, the International Air Cargo Complex at Devanahalli and the International Courier Terminal. This city has no sea port of its own. Karnataka's sea customs run through New Mangaluru Port and Karwar, so a container leaving by ship leaves the local customs jurisdiction.
| Body | What it holds for an exporter here | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| DGFT Regional Authority | Code issue, amendments, deficiency letters, policy benefit claims | Bengaluru, the only one in the state |
| Bengaluru City Customs | Karnataka outside the Mangaluru regions, ICD Whitefield, the Foreign Post Office | the city |
| Airport and Air Cargo Complex Commissionerate | Air consignments and courier exports | Devanahalli |
| Mangaluru Customs | The sea leg of a shipment | New Mangaluru Port and Karwar |
What the Regional Authority can ask for later is the part people forget. The particulars on the code must stay current. Leaving a shared office in HSR Layout, or taking a unit inside an industrial area, means filing an amendment.
What does IEC registration cost in Bengaluru, and when does it come back?
Our professional fee is ₹1,999. DGFT charges its own application fee at submission, and it appears on your invoice before you pay anything. Karnataka levies nothing on the code itself, because the code is a central registration.
The code carries no five year cycle. It does have to be updated electronically every year, and DGFT can deactivate a code that is left without its update, which is a poor thing to discover on the day a consignment is booked. We hold the dates and confirm the current requirement with the department before filing.
The state charges land elsewhere, and they do land. A GST registration in this state is by itself enough to owe the ₹2,500 a year profession tax enrolment certificate. That is entry 2 of the Karnataka Schedule, and no turnover test survives in it. The statutory payment date is 30 April, and it has been extended by separate order in some years, so we check the current one. Your establishment registration under the 1961 Act runs five years under section 4(4) and is filed with the Labour Department through e-Karmika, not with any city corporation.
Who in Bengaluru is applying for a code right now?
- An IT services and business process operator in Electronic City, paid in foreign currency, taking the code the week it decides to claim a policy benefit. Its licensing already runs through ELCITA, so reading the fine print twice is a habit there.
- A product startup founder in HSR Layout with the first ten hires, shipping hardware samples and small batches to buyers abroad and needing the code on the shipping bill.
- A unit in one of the sixteen KIADB industrial areas in Bengaluru Urban, anywhere from the Peenya phases to Bommasandra, moving cargo out through ICD Whitefield.
- A first time importer whose overseas supplier wants the code printed on the proforma invoice before anything is dispatched.
- An exporter whose code still carries an address the business left years ago, and who needs an amendment before the next claim.
Which half of the IEC job is the hard one?
We file the code, then tell you what your address has just triggered around it. That second part is where the value sits, because the code itself is the easy half.
Our CA and CS team handles the application, the name and address reconciliation that decides whether it clears in one pass, and the amendments later when your office or banker changes. Where a question turns municipal we check your address on the Greater Bengaluru Authority's Know Your Ward tool first, since the corporation answer varies street by street and a locality name is not proof. The work is done online, and the office is there if you would rather sit with someone.