What Qualifies as Export of Services — The Five Conditions
Under Section 2(6) of the IGST Act, a supply of services is treated as an “export of services” only when all five of the following conditions are simultaneously satisfied. Missing even one of them converts what should be a zero-rated supply into a fully taxable domestic transaction — at 18% IGST.
Before raising any export invoice, run through all five conditions. A common failure point is Condition 4 — businesses receiving payment in INR from a non-resident account through permitted INR settlement mechanisms must obtain specific RBI documentation to satisfy this requirement. Another frequent failure is Condition 2, where the legal recipient is an Indian entity despite the beneficial business purpose being offshore.
The Section 13(8)(b) Problem — And How Budget 2026 Fixed It
If the story of export of services in India had a villain, it was Section 13(8)(b) of the IGST Act. Introduced in 2017 alongside the rest of GST, this provision stated that for intermediary services, the place of supply would be the location of the supplier — i.e., India — regardless of where the recipient was located.
In plain terms: if you were a commission agent facilitating a trade, a BPO processing foreign transactions, a marketing intermediary coordinating between an Indian manufacturer and a foreign buyer, or an IT firm acting as a service aggregator for overseas clients, the law deemed your service to be “performed in India.” You owed 18% IGST on your full revenue. You could not zero-rate the supply. You could not claim export benefits.
“For eight years, Indian companies paid 18% GST on revenue earned entirely from foreign clients — not because of what they did, but because of a single definition clause.”
The provision contradicted the fundamental principle of GST — that indirect tax should follow the destination of consumption, not the location of the supplier. Every major trading economy, including the EU, UK, Australia, and Singapore, applied destination-based rules for intermediary services. India was a visible outlier, and it cost its own service exporters dearly.
Section 13(8)(b) applied. Place of supply for intermediary services = location of the supplier (India).
Condition 3 (place of supply outside India) was structurally unsatisfiable for intermediaries.
Export of services status was denied. 18% IGST applied on full revenue from foreign clients.
Businesses like Genpact India, EY India, and thousands of smaller BPOs and commission agents fought this in courts — with inconsistent outcomes state to state.
Section 13(8)(b) deleted. Intermediary services now fall under the default rule in Section 13(2).
Place of supply = location of the recipient (the foreign client). Condition 3 is now satisfiable.
All five export conditions can be met. Intermediary services to foreign clients qualify as zero-rated exports.
Estimated ₹4,000 crore stuck in disputes and refund denials is expected to be unlocked progressively as the amendment takes effect.
December 2024: 56th GST Council Meeting formally recommended deletion of Section 13(8)(b), recognising that the provision contradicted the destination principle of GST and made India an outlier among trading nations.
1 February 2025: Finance Bill 2026 introduced in Parliament as Clause 141, carrying forward the Council's recommendation.
April 2026: Finance Act 2026 enacted. The deletion comes into effect. Intermediary services to foreign clients are now eligible for zero-rated export treatment.
Zero-Rating in Practice — The LUT Route vs the IGST-Refund Route
Once your service qualifies as an export, the GST law under Section 16 of the IGST Act gives you two routes to realise the zero-rating benefit. Choosing the right one depends on your cash flow position, the scale of your input tax credits, and your administrative capacity.
Letter of Undertaking (LUT)
- File Form RFD-11 on the GST portal before making the first export supply of the financial year
- Raise zero-tax invoices — no IGST charged to the foreign client
- Accumulated Input Tax Credits (ITC) on domestic purchases can be claimed as refund via Form RFD-01
- Cash flow advantage: no upfront tax outgo. Clients receive cleaner invoices without Indian tax
- LUT must be renewed every financial year. For FY 2026-27, it was due by 31 March 2026 if you intended to export from 1 April 2026
Pay IGST & Claim Refund
- No LUT required — suitable for occasional or first-time exporters who have not yet filed LUT
- Charge 18% IGST on your export invoice, pay it to the government
- Claim full refund of IGST paid, plus any accumulated ITC, after export proceeds are realised
- Disadvantage: capital is locked until refund is processed — typically 60 to 90 days
- Suitable if your input credit position is low and refund claims are simple. Not recommended as the default approach for ongoing export businesses
Many businesses, especially smaller IT firms and freelancers newly qualifying as service exporters post the Budget 2026 amendment, assume that zero-rating is automatic. It is not. You must either file an LUT before raising your first zero-rated export invoice, or pay IGST and claim refund later. Raising zero-rated invoices without a valid LUT on record is a compliance error and can result in the refund being denied on the grounds that tax was not paid and no LUT was in place.
The RBI Change: Export Realization Now 15 Months
GST refunds and the FEMA framework for service exports are deeply interconnected — and a critical FEMA deadline was quietly updated in November 2025 with significant implications for every Indian service exporter.
Under the Foreign Exchange Management (Export of Goods and Services) Regulations, Indian exporters were previously required to realise and repatriate foreign exchange within nine months of the invoice date. Failure to do so within this window triggered a cascade: the GST refund received against that export had to be reversed, interest penalties applied, and potential FEMA violations were registered.
| Parameter | Pre-November 2025 | Post-Amendment (FEMA 23(R)/(7)/2025-RB) |
|---|---|---|
| Export realization deadline | 9 months from invoice date | 15 months from invoice date |
| Applies to | All exporters — goods and services | All exporters — goods and services (immediate effect) |
| Consequence of breach | FEMA violation + GST refund reversal + interest under Section 50 | Same consequences, but with 6 more months of breathing room |
| Post-breach recovery window | 30 days to deposit refund + interest | 30 days to deposit refund + interest (unchanged) |
| Partial realization handling | Proportional refund reversal on unrealized portion | Proportional reversal still applies — pro-rata calculation |
The extended timeline is particularly valuable for exporters serving clients in geographies with longer payment cycles — large enterprise clients in the US and Europe, government or PSU clients abroad, or markets where banking infrastructure causes delays. It also provides breathing room during currency restriction periods or forex controls in the buyer's country.
If you have claimed a GST refund on an export and the foreign payment has not arrived by the end of the 15-month window, you are required to deposit the proportional refund amount within 30 days of the deadline. If you wait and the GST authority issues a recovery notice under Section 73/74, interest will be added to the reversal amount. The practical advice is to actively track your export invoice aging — every invoice older than 12 months where payment is outstanding deserves immediate follow-up with your foreign client and your authorised dealer bank.
Who Benefits — Businesses That Can Now Restructure Their GST Position
The combined effect of the Budget 2026 amendment and the RBI's realization timeline extension creates a materially better operating environment for a wide range of Indian businesses serving foreign clients. If you fall into any of the following categories, a review of your current GST and FEMA position is both worthwhile and urgent.
The deletion of Section 13(8)(b) does not help Indian entities supplying services to other establishments of the same entity located abroad. Transactions between a head office in India and its foreign branch, or between group companies, still fail Condition 5. For such transactions — common in GCCs and multinational shared-services structures — a separate analysis under FEMA, transfer pricing, and the IGST Act is necessary.
Documentation: What You Must Maintain Without Exception
Zero-rated status is not self-executing. The moment a GST officer or FEMA inspector examines your export claims, the documentation either defends you completely or creates exposure. The following are the minimum requirements for every export of services transaction.
A Change Long Overdue — But Compliance Is Still Your Responsibility
The deletion of Section 13(8)(b) is one of the most substantive GST corrections since the Act was introduced in 2017. For businesses in the intermediary and BPO space, it removes a structural penalty that made no economic or legal sense. The ₹4,000 crore estimate of disputes unlocked is almost certainly conservative — the real benefit will compound over years as businesses are no longer forced to embed 18% GST into their pricing for foreign clients or absorb it as a pure cost.
The RBI extension on FEMA realization is equally important, though quieter in its impact. In practice, many Indian exporters — particularly those dealing with large international clients or emerging market geographies — have faced situations where a 9-month realization window was commercially unrealistic. The move to 15 months recognises that reality.
What has not changed is the compliance burden. Zero-rating is not automatic, and the government does not extend these benefits without documentary verification. Businesses that act quickly — filing their LUT, restructuring their invoicing, cleaning up their GSTR-1 reporting, and establishing their FIRC tracking — will capture the full benefit. Businesses that assume the benefit flows through without any action on their part will find themselves with exposure at the next GST audit.
The law has finally moved in your direction. The work now is to make sure your compliance position moves with it.
Serving Foreign Clients? Structure It Right.
Our CA team has deep experience in RBI, FEMA, and GST compliance for service exporters — from LUT filings and refund claims to FEMA repatriation tracking and transfer pricing guidance.
Talk to Our Export Services Team