What Is the SOFTEX Form?
The SOFTEX Form is the declaration an Indian exporter of computer software, and audio/video or television software, files with a designated certifying official so the value of that export can be verified and reported to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It is the software-export counterpart of the Export Declaration Form (EDF) used for physical goods: no shipping bill exists for a software export, so the SOFTEX form is what lets RBI's foreign-exchange tracking system record that the export happened, what it was worth, and when the payment for it must come back to India.
Any company, partnership, or proprietorship that develops and exports computer software or IT-enabled services has to go through this process — not only units formally registered under the Software Technology Parks (STP) scheme. If a business is not an STP-scheme unit, it registers separately with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) as a "NON-STP unit" purely to get its SOFTEX forms certified.
Legal Basis
SOFTEX filing is a FEMA obligation, not an income-tax one. The framework sits in two linked instruments:
- Foreign Exchange Management (Export of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2015 (Notification No. FEMA.23(R)/2015-RB dated January 12, 2016) — the regulation issued under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999. Regulation 3 sets the general declaration requirement for export of goods and software; Regulation 9 sets the obligation to realise and repatriate the export proceeds to India. These Regulations are superseded from 1 October 2026 — see "What Changes on 1 October 2026" below.
- Master Direction – Export of Goods and Services (RBI/FED/2015-16/11, FED Master Direction No. 16/2015-16, dated January 1, 2016, periodically updated — most recently as on July 17, 2026) — the RBI circular that consolidates the operating procedure, including Part B.5, "SOFTEX Forms," which is the specific paragraph exporters and their bankers work from.
Who Must File — and Who Can Get It Certified
The Master Direction states it plainly: "All software exporters can now file single as well as bulk SOFTEX form in the form of a statement in excel format to the competent authority for certification." The obligation is not limited to STP-scheme members. It also covers Export Oriented Units (EOUs) engaged in software export — the Master Direction adds that "the designated officials may also certify the SOFTEX Forms of EOUs, which are registered with them."
What this means in practice for a foreign-owned or foreign-founded software or IT-enabled-services exporter incorporated in India: registering under the formal STP scheme is optional, but registering with STPI in some form is not. A company that does not want the STP scheme's customs and duty benefits can instead register as a NON-STP unit with the jurisdictional STPI Director — an application with supporting documents and a processing fee, cleared within 10 working days per STPI's published guidance. The Letter of Permission issued on NON-STP registration is valid for three years and is renewable by approaching the Director STPI in the final three months before expiry, with no renewal fee. A NON-STP unit must also register each export contract with STPI before it submits a SOFTEX form against that contract.
How the Filing Works
A common "SOFTEX Form" covers both single invoices and bulk (monthly) software exports, filed as an Excel-format statement. Every invoice raised in the period has to be listed in that bulk statement — including invoices below US$25,000, which get no separate exemption from being reported. Because STPI and SEZ authorities now transmit SOFTEX data to RBI electronically, the exporter submits the form in duplicate: the certifying authority retains one copy and hands the other back to the exporter once it is certified.
The certifying, or "designated," official sits at STPI, or at the EPZ/FTZ/SEZ authority for units operating out of those zones. That official's job is valuation — checking the declared export value on the SOFTEX form against the underlying invoice, and amending the invoice value if the declared figure does not hold up.
Invoicing and Filing Deadlines
The Master Direction ties the SOFTEX filing deadline to how the underlying contract is invoiced:
- Long-duration contracts (a series of transmissions over time): the exporter must bill the overseas client at least once a month, or on reaching a contractual milestone, and the final invoice must be raised no later than 15 days after the contract completes. One combined SOFTEX form can cover every invoice raised on a given client in a month, including advance remittances received that month.
- One-shot contracts: the invoice must be raised within 15 days of the transmission.
- SOFTEX submission itself: the exporter must submit the Form SOFTEX declaration to the designated official not later than 30 days from the date of the invoice, or the date of the last invoice raised in that month for a bulk filing.
On the certifying side, STPI's own published guidance for NON-STP units states that certification is completed within 30 days of the unit submitting a complete SOFTEX form with the required supporting documents.
SOFTEX Numbers and Delay Condonation
SOFTEX form numbers — like EDF numbers for goods — are allotted by RBI, not by STPI. RBI runs the online facility that lets an exporter generate an EDF or SOFTEX form number itself, for both single and bulk filings; the older system of manually allotting these numbers through RBI's regional offices has been withdrawn. STPI's published guidance confirms both STP-scheme units and NON-STP units use this same RBI-run numbering facility.
Delays happen — before an exporter has completed STPI registration, or afterward. Either way, the exporter (or applicant) has to apply to the Director STPI to have the delay condoned, and STPI may condone it if the prescribed conditions are met; there is no automatic right to a late filing.
SOFTEX and EDPMS: Where This Fits in the Bigger Compliance Picture
SOFTEX is not the end of the compliance chain — it is an input into it. Once an Authorised Dealer (AD) bank negotiates or collects an export bill, it reports that transaction into the Export Data Processing and Monitoring System (EDPMS), the RBI system that tracks whether export proceeds are actually realised. The certified SOFTEX value is what feeds that system for a software export, the same way a certified EDF feeds it for a goods export.
Realisation matters because it carries its own deadline: exporters of goods, software, and services — expressly including Special Economic Zone units, Export Oriented Units, and STP units — must realise and repatriate the full export value to India within nine months from the date of export. That figure has moved twice in the recent past: Notification No. FEMA 23(R)(7)/2025-RB substituted fifteen months on 13 November 2025, and Notification No. FEMA 23(R)(8)/2026-RB restored nine months on 5 June 2026. For exports made from 1 October 2026 the period becomes fifteen months under Regulation 5 of the 2026 Regulations described below, counted from the date of the invoice for services and software, and eighteen months where the export is invoiced or settled in Indian Rupees. AD Category-I banks must report all inward remittances received for export of goods and software into EDPMS, including the electronic Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate (FIRC) wherever such a certificate is issued, and that reporting is what eventually closes the entry the SOFTEX filing opened.
What Changes on 1 October 2026
The 2015 Regulations are superseded from 1 October 2026 by the Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2026, and the word "SOFTEX" does not appear in them. Three changes matter to a software exporter:
- One declaration form. Under Regulation 3(2) an exporter of services files its declaration in the Export Declaration Form (EDF) — the same form used for goods — rather than a separate SOFTEX form. The Explanation to Regulation 2(1) puts software inside "services" for this purpose.
- A month-end deadline replaces the invoice-date one. The EDF is due within 30 days from the end of the month in which the invoice for the services was raised, and a single EDF may cover every recipient billed in that month. An Authorised Dealer may extend that period on a reasoned request.
- STPI stays in the chain, under a different label. The 2026 Regulations do not use the words "certify" or "certification" at all. Regulation 2(1)(f)(iii) keeps Software Technology Parks of India as a "specified authority" for software in the Domestic Tariff Area, alongside an Authorised Dealer, with the SEZ Development Commissioner covering units inside an SEZ. Where the specified authority is not an AD bank, Regulation 3(3) requires it to forward the authenticated EDF to the exporter's AD bank.
Until 30 September 2026 the SOFTEX procedure set out above continues to apply in full.
Why This Matters for a Foreign-Invested Software Exporter
A foreign founder setting up an Indian subsidiary to build and export software, or an Indian IT-enabled-services company with foreign shareholders, cannot treat SOFTEX as paperwork to worry about later. Three consequences follow directly from getting it wrong:
- Uncertified exports are unreported exports. Without a certified SOFTEX form, there is no RBI record that the export happened at all, which makes it harder to demonstrate that inward remittances received later are genuine export proceeds rather than something that needs a different, and more scrutinised, explanation.
- Missed 30-day deadlines compound. A company invoicing monthly but not filing SOFTEX on the same cadence can end up with a backlog of unfiled forms across a financial year, each one requiring a separate condonation request to the Director STPI.
- An exporter operating without any STPI registration — STP or NON-STP — has no route to certification at all. Registration is a prerequisite for certification, not a formality that follows it.
Practical Example
An India-incorporated subsidiary of a US software company bills its US parent US$40,000 a month for offshore development work, under a rolling services agreement. Because this is a long-duration contract, the subsidiary invoices monthly. It has never registered with STPI because it assumed SOFTEX applied only to formal STP-scheme units.
Under the Master Direction, this subsidiary is a software exporter and must file SOFTEX regardless of STP status. Since it does not want the STP scheme's customs benefits, its practical route is to register as a NON-STP unit with its jurisdictional STPI Director, register the US services contract with STPI, and then submit a monthly bulk SOFTEX statement — covering that month's invoice — within 30 days of the invoice date. STPI certifies the declared value, and the subsidiary's Authorized Dealer bank reports the eventual remittance into EDPMS. If the subsidiary had kept invoicing without ever registering, none of its exports would have had a certified SOFTEX record, leaving it unable to show RBI that the dollars landing in its account each month were properly declared export proceeds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is SOFTEX only required for companies registered under the STP scheme?
No. The Master Direction on Export of Goods and Services states that all software exporters can file SOFTEX, and that designated officials can also certify SOFTEX forms for Export Oriented Units. A company outside the STP scheme registers with STPI as a NON-STP unit specifically to get its SOFTEX forms certified.
What is the deadline for filing a SOFTEX form?
The exporter must submit the SOFTEX declaration to the designated official — at STPI, or the relevant EPZ/FTZ/SEZ authority — no later than 30 days from the date of the invoice, or the date of the last invoice raised in that month where a bulk monthly statement is filed.
Who certifies a SOFTEX form, and what does certification actually check?
A designated official at STPI, or at the EPZ/FTZ/SEZ where the exporting unit is located, certifies the form. Certification is a valuation check: the official verifies the export value declared on the SOFTEX form against the invoice and can amend that value if it does not hold up.
Does a small invoice, below US$25,000, need to be reported on SOFTEX?
Yes. The bulk Excel statement exporters file must list every invoice raised in the period, including those below US$25,000. There is no minimum-value exemption from inclusion in that statement.
How does SOFTEX connect to getting export proceeds recognised as repatriated?
A certified SOFTEX form is the record that a software export happened and what it was worth. The Authorised Dealer bank later reports the actual receipt of payment into EDPMS, and issues a Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate against it — The reporting of that remittance into EDPMS is how RBI confirms the proceeds were realised inside the permitted window — nine months for exports made up to 30 September 2026, and fifteen months, or eighteen months if the export is invoiced or settled in Indian Rupees, for exports made from 1 October 2026.
See also: IEC (Import Export Code), FIRC (Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate), and SEZ (Special Economic Zone).
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