Bank Realisation Certificate (BRC): Meaning, Who Issues It, and How to Get One Today
Ask an exporter of twenty years about the BRC and they will remember queuing at a bank branch. Ask a new exporter and they will show you a PDF from the DGFT portal. Both are talking about the same certificate: proof that export money actually came home.
What a bank realisation certificate is
Every export has two halves: the goods or services leave India, and the payment arrives in India. The bank realisation certificate documents the second half. It certifies that a specific export payment was received through proper banking channels and realised, meaning the foreign money actually arrived and was accounted for, not merely invoiced or promised. Incentive schemes, GST refunds on service exports, and FEMA compliance all lean on that one certified fact.
From paper BRC to eBRC
The BRC began as a physical certificate. Your bank verified the inward payment against your export documents and issued the certificate by hand, branch by branch, export by export. In 2012 the DGFT moved the certificate online as the eBRC, with banks transmitting realisation data electronically, and in November 2022 the system was revamped again around electronic Inward Remittance Messages (IRMs) and exporter self-certification. The full comparison lives in eBRC vs paper BRC, but the practical summary is one line: the paper BRC is legacy, and the certificate you obtain today is the eBRC.
Who issues it
Under the current system the roles are split. Your authorised dealer bank reports each foreign receipt to the DGFT as an IRM. The DGFT hosts the certificate system. And you, the exporter, generate the certificate by matching the remittance to your shipping bill or export invoice and self-certifying the result. No branch visit issues a paper certificate anymore; the certificate exists because the bank's data and your certification meet on the DGFT portal.
What a Bank Realisation Number (BRN) is
Every generated certificate carries a Bank Realisation Number, the unique identifier the DGFT assigns to that realisation record. When a scheme, an officer, or a bank asks for your BRN, they are asking for the number printed on the eBRC, and it is the number you use to pull a certificate up again in the portal's repositories. If you need the certificate PDF itself, the steps are in how to download an eBRC copy.
What the certificate is used for
- Incentive claims. RoDTEP, duty drawback, and other schemes pay against realised exports; the certificate is the standard evidence. See eBRC for RoDTEP and drawback.
- GST refunds. For export of services, realisation evidence is typically part of the refund claim.
- FEMA and EDPMS. Export proceeds must come home within the prescribed period, and realisation is what closes a shipping bill's entry in the RBI's monitoring system.
How to get a BRC today
Since the certificate is now the eBRC, getting one is a portal flow, not a bank errand: your remittances appear as IRMs under your IEC, you map each to its shipping bill or invoice, and you self-certify. The step-by-step walkthrough is in how to generate an eBRC on the DGFT portal. If you would rather skip the portal entirely, the same flow runs from one workspace where remittances arrive on their own, filings are validated and status-chased for you, and the certificate is usually back in about two hours; start free, no card required.
IRM, BRN, eFIRC, and the rest of the vocabulary this post leans on are collected in the exporter's DGFT glossary.
Frequently asked questions
Is a BRC the same as an eBRC?
They certify the same fact. The BRC was the paper certificate banks issued by hand; the eBRC is its electronic replacement, generated through the DGFT. A request for a BRC today is fulfilled by an eBRC.
Who issues a bank realisation certificate now?
No one issues a paper certificate anymore. Your bank reports the realisation to the DGFT as an IRM, and you generate the certificate on the DGFT portal by matching that remittance to your export and self-certifying.
Is an old paper BRC still valid?
Certificates issued under the older regimes remain part of your records for the periods they cover. New realisations are certified through the eBRC system.
What is a Bank Realisation Number?
The BRN is the unique number on a generated eBRC. It identifies the realisation record in the DGFT's repositories and is what schemes and banks quote when they reference your certificate.
