Export Consultant in Jodhpur | Handicraft and Wooden Furniture Exporters | Rasp International

RoDTEP is the primary remission scheme for handicraft and furniture exports and rates are published against the eight digit HS code under Appendix 4R. The distinction that costs Jodhpur exporters money is the line between a wooden handicraft article and wooden furniture, because those sit under different headings and are not treated the same way.

A wrong or lazy classification does not produce an error message. It silently reduces or zeroes your remission and nobody tells you. We see this most often where a unit exports a mixed container of furniture, decorative articles and iron and wood pieces and classifies everything under one convenient code.

Duty drawback works differently from RoDTEP and the two are frequently confused. Drawback pays directly into your bank account. RoDTEP issues a transferable scrip. A scrip can only be sold twenty four hours after issuance, not before.

This is the item that deserves attention this year. The European Union Deforestation Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, covers wood and products derived from it, and furniture is explicitly inside the scope. To be placed on or exported from the EU market, covered goods must be deforestation free against a cut off date of 31 December 2020, produced legally in the country of origin, and covered by a due diligence statement with plot level geolocation of where the wood came from.

The timeline has moved twice. Under Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 the application date is now 30 December 2026 for large and medium operators and 30 June 2027 for micro and small operators. A May 2026 simplification package added guidance, legality repositories and recognition of certification.

What that means practically is that your European buyer will start asking for traceability on your timber well before the deadline, because they carry the legal obligation and they will not wait until December to find out whether their Indian supplier can answer. Reclaimed and recycled wood, mango wood, sheesham and imported timber each raise different traceability questions. If you sell furniture into the EU, the supplier who can already document origin will win volume from the one who cannot.

The RoDTEP declaration on the shipping bill checklist. If the RoDTEP option is not marked as yes at the time of filing, the claim is dead. It cannot be added retrospectively. It does not matter that your product is eligible, that your RCMC is valid, or that every other document is perfect.

We have seen exporters lose entire seasons of remission to a single unticked box handled by a CHA who was moving fast. If you stuff regularly at ICD Bhagat Ki Kothi, this belongs on a pre filing checklist that somebody in your office owns, not your clearing agent.

The other recurring failure is an AD Code, IFSC or account number mismatch between what DGFT holds and what the shipping bill carries. The scrip cannot credit to a bank account the system does not recognise.

You need a valid RCMC to claim most export benefits, and for handicraft and wooden handicraft product lines EPCH is the relevant council. RCMC is now issued electronically through the DGFT platform under the e-RCMC process, which means your DGFT profile data and your RCMC application data have to agree with each other.

Mismatches between the firm name on your IEC, your GST registration, your bank records and your RCMC application are the most common reason these get stuck. Name matching is case sensitive. A firm registered in capitals will not match the same name in title case.

Solid wood packaging material, pallets, crates and dunnage moving in international trade is governed by ISPM 15, which requires treatment and marking. This is separate from anything to do with the product inside, and it is a common reason a container gets held at destination rather than at origin, which is the expensive version of the problem.

Two practical points. The mark has to be on the packaging, applied by an approved facility, and it has to survive handling. And where the product itself is wood, the destination country may apply plant health requirements to the goods as well as the packaging, so confirm both legs of the requirement for each market rather than assuming one certificate covers everything.

Four reasons, in order of how often we see them.

Documentation mismatch across PAN, Aadhaar, GST and bank records. PAN and Aadhaar not linked, which blocks Aadhaar OTP authentication completely and forces you onto a Class 3 DSC. Handwritten cancelled cheques, which get rejected because the cheque must be pre printed with the account holder name. And branch addresses entered in an order that does not match the serial order shown on the GST certificate.

When a shipment is waiting and the cheque is the problem, a bank certificate in the prescribed format is usually the faster route than reordering a chequebook.

Yes. The window runs from 1 April to 30 June every year and it is mandatory even where there are no changes to declare. Confirming with no changes is free. Modifying carries a fee. Missing the window deactivates your IEC, which means shipments stop.

This catches established units more than new ones, because a firm exporting for fifteen years assumes a lifetime IEC needs no maintenance.

RoDTEP rates were reduced by fifty percent in February 2026 under Notification 60/2025-26 and then restored in full in March 2026 under Notification 66/2025-26. ITC HS Chapters 01 to 24 were exempt from that cut. The scheme has been extended to 30 September 2026 under Notification 74/2025-26.

The number that should shape your filing behaviour is the budget. The FY2026-27 allocation is roughly ten thousand crore against a prior figure closer to eighteen thousand crore. A smaller pool with the same claimant base means filing early in the year matters more than it used to. Sitting on claims is now a real cost.

Most of this work is filing work and filing is not local. DGFT applications, RCMC, RoDTEP claims, e-BRC closure, AD Code registration and DSC issuance are handled on portals, and we file at all regional authorities and at DGFT headquarters in New Delhi. Documentation review, classification checks and scheme selection happen over call and WhatsApp.

Where physical presence matters, which is mostly customs escalation and port level coordination, we work through established relationships rather than pretending to have an office in every city.

Six things. Whether your IEC annual updation for this year is confirmed. Whether the RoDTEP declaration is being marked on every shipping bill. Whether your HS classification separates furniture from handicraft articles correctly against Appendix 4R. Whether you can trace the origin of the timber in the furniture you sell into Europe. Whether your AD Code and bank details match across DGFT, GST and your shipping bills. And whether any issued scrips are sitting unsold past the point where you needed the cash.

If you are unsure on any of them, that is the conversation to have.