P1304 Purpose Code: Grants and donations to governments

P1304 is the RBI purpose code for: Grants and donations to governments and charitable institutions established by the governments. It sits in group 13, Secondary Income, of the receipt purposes RBI uses to classify foreign exchange coming into India.

P1304 at a glance

Can a P1304 remittance become an eBRC?

No, as a rule. RBI places P1304 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 P1304. 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 P1304 has been classified as: Grants and donations to governments and charitable institutions established by the governments.

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 P1304 is defined. That list, Annex I to A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 84 dated 29 February 2012, places P1304 in group 13, Secondary Income, and describes it as: Grants and donations to governments and charitable institutions established by the governments. 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.

P1304 or a neighbouring code

The codes below are the ones most easily confused with P1304. The difference is in RBI’s wording, so the table quotes it, with what DGFT allows for each.

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.

Other codes in group 13

• P1301Family maintenance and savings from non-residentsNot an export receipt
• P1302Personal gifts and donationsNot an export receipt
• P1303Donations to religious and charitable institutionsNot an export receipt
• P1306Receipts and refunds of taxesNot an export receipt
• P1307Migrant transfers and personal effectsNot an export receipt

All 6 Secondary Income purpose codes