It has been a tough time for the Indian PayPal users this month after PayPal officially announced that it has stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India. Withdrawals from PP to local bank accounts was also not working as normal due to some issues they were having with Reserve Bank of India.
But now, Farhad Irani from PayPal team has announced in their official blog that PayPal will resume local bank transfer in India from 3rd March and users will be able to withdraw funds to Indian local banks provided they have an ‘Export Code’.
Export code or Import Export code [IEC] is a 10 digit numeric code issued to Indian companies by Director General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India. To import or export in India, IEC Code is mandatory.
AS recommended by the RBI, PP now requires that it’s Indian users will have to fill out ‘Export Code’ when they request a withdrawal. So how do we obtain this Paypal export code.
Getting an Import Export code is not so much a hassle. It’s a one time process and is valid for rest of your life just like your PAN card. So in order to get one for yourself just follow these simple procedures.
Download the IEC application from the official website of Director General of Foreign Trade [http://dgftcom.nic.in/] or just use this direct link.
Fill the form and if you’re applying for IEC as an individual [Proprietorship], then make sure you have the following requirements.
- PAN Number [PAN card copies]
- Current Bank Account
- Bankers Certificate
- Date of birth certificate
- Demand Draft of Rs. 250 [application fee]
- Passport size photographs of the applicant duly attested by the Banker of the applicant.[2 copies]
- Self addresses envelope with Rs.25/- postal stamp for delivery of IEC certificate by registered post or challan/DD of Rs.100/- for speed post.
Submit the application form in person to your regional DGFT office. You can always check the current status of your application here.
If you’re too busy to do all these stuffs, then search for Import Export agents nearby who will help you get IEC for small fee.
UPDATE [1st March 2010]: PayPal has now confirmed that IEC is not required, and only purpose code is to be entered at the time of withdrawal. Check this latest post on how to get PayPal purpose code.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Lol :).
One more RED TAPE by Corrupt Useless Govt. of India Clerks.
WHY IS PAN CARD not enough.
IEC was created when PAN Cards did not exist.
What do you mean by Banker's Certificate?
Thanks for the info!
P.S:
Import Export code required for paypal is very easy to obtain from your nearby foreign trade office. Please don't fall into prey of some costly agencies like eLagaan which offers IEC for Rs 4000+.
If you've time you can easily obtain IEC for just Rs 250.
Be smart, stay safe.
-Sharath
@DeshPremi
🙂
@Rohit
Bankers certificate will issued by your branch manager stating your account details.
One more thing to note is that you'll need a 'current account' and not a "savings account" for applying IEC.
@sharath
Most of these agencies collect more money saying that they're req to pay some 'xtra' money to govt officials, which is true inmost cases.
Through these agencies you'll get IEC the same day you apply..LOL
I called up paypal U.S office. They told me that paypal will clear all the pending payments. for future transactions they shall be requiring this export code.
I just want my money which is stuck in paypal to be given to me.