P1201 Purpose Code: Maintenance of foreign embassies in India
P1201 is the RBI purpose code for: Maintenance of foreign embassies in India. It sits in group 12, Government not included elsewhere, of the receipt purposes RBI uses to classify foreign exchange coming into India.
P1201 at a glance
| Code | P1201 |
| RBI wording | Maintenance of foreign embassies in India |
| RBI group | 12, Govt. not included elsewhere (G.n.i.e.) |
| Status | In RBI's receipt purpose list |
| eBRC on DGFT | Not an export receipt |
| Who attaches it | The AD bank that receives the payment |
Can a P1201 remittance become an eBRC?
No, as a rule. RBI places P1201 outside both the exports of goods (group 01) and the service groups, so the money is not proceeds of an export, and an eBRC certifies export proceeds. DGFT's eBRC guidelines do not name P1201. If the payment was in fact for goods or services you exported, the classification is wrong, and the bank that reported it is the one to correct it.
The rule is DGFT’s, from its General Guidelines for Generating eBRC (last updated 26 March 2024). The full list, and what each rule means when you map remittances, is in how to generate an eBRC on the DGFT portal.
What this code says about the money
A purpose code is your bank speaking, not you. When a foreign payment reaches your account, the AD bank reports it with a purpose code that states the RBI classification of the transaction, and that report is the Inward Remittance Message, the IRM. A remittance carrying P1201 has been classified as: Maintenance of foreign embassies in India.
In FETERS reporting
FETERS is the Foreign Exchange Transactions Electronic Reporting System, the system under which Authorised Dealer banks report their foreign exchange transactions to the RBI, and its receipt purpose list is where P1201 is defined. That list, Annex I to A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 84 dated 29 February 2012, places P1201 in group 12, Govt. not included elsewhere (G.n.i.e.), and describes it as: Maintenance of foreign embassies in India. That is the wording a bank’s reporting desk works from, so it is the wording to match when you ask the bank what a remittance was reported as.
P1201 or a neighbouring code
The codes below are the ones most easily confused with P1201. The difference is in RBI’s wording, so the table quotes it, with what DGFT allows for each.
| Code | RBI wording | eBRC on DGFT |
|---|---|---|
| P1201 | Maintenance of foreign embassies in India | Not an export receipt |
| P1203 | Maintenance of international institutions such as offices of IMF mission, World Bank, UNICEF etc. in India. | Not an export receipt |
If the code on your remittance looks wrong
The code is attached at reporting time by the bank, so the fix runs through the bank, not through DGFT. Ask the AD branch that received the payment to confirm the classification; an amended report shows up as a revised IRM. What each IRM status means, and what you can do with a remittance in each state, is in the IRM explainer, and the errors DGFT returns when a code does not fit the filing are in IRM mapping errors on DGFT. Exporters who agree the purpose code with their buyer's bank once, at onboarding, rarely meet this page twice.