Interest Equalisation Scheme — Transition to Niryat Protsahan Interest Subvention

What happened to the Interest Equalisation Scheme?

The Interest Equalisation Scheme on Pre and Post Shipment Rupee Export Credit was the Government of India's main tool for cheapening working capital for exporters between 2015 and 2024. The scheme ran from 1 April 2015, was extended several times, and finally closed on 31 December 2024. No new export credit is being equalised under it, and exporters should not expect a revival of the same design.

In its last operating form, the Interest Equalisation Scheme paid 2% per annum to manufacturer and merchant exporters shipping under 410 identified HS lines, and 3% per annum to MSME manufacturer exporters on any HS line. From 1 April 2023, the net benefit was capped at Rs 10 crore per IEC per financial year. During 2024 the government also introduced monthly per-IEC caps to ration the remaining budget, and RBI restricted banks whose pre-subvention pricing on covered loans exceeded repo rate plus 4%.

The replacement is not a renewal of the old scheme. It sits inside a larger programme: the Export Promotion Mission, approved by the Union Cabinet on 12 November 2025 with an outlay of Rs 25,060 crore for FY 2025-26 to FY 2030-31. The Mission has two sub-schemes, Niryat Protsahan for trade finance and financial enablers, and Niryat Disha for market access, quality, branding and logistics support.

What is the Niryat Protsahan interest subvention scheme?

The Interest Subvention Scheme for pre- and post-shipment rupee export credit under the Export Promotion Mission, Niryat Protsahan was launched by DGFT through Trade Notice No. 20/2025-26 dated 2 January 2026, effective the same day. According to DGFT, the scheme pays 2.75% per annum on eligible rupee export credit, subject to a maximum benefit of Rs 50 lakh per MSME exporter per financial year.

Two design changes separate this scheme from the old Interest Equalisation Scheme, and both matter commercially:

• Only MSMEs qualify. The 2% band for large manufacturer and merchant exporters is gone. An exporter without a live Udyam registration gets nothing.
• The cap fell from Rs 10 crore to Rs 50 lakh per exporter per year. The new scheme is deliberately aimed at small exporters rather than at the largest users of packing credit, who consumed most of the old scheme's outlay.

The subvention is delivered upfront. The lending bank charges the exporter a reduced rate of interest on the covered facility and then claims reimbursement from the implementing agency. The exporter never receives a separate cash payout.

Who is eligible for the Niryat Protsahan interest subvention?

You can apply if:

• You are a micro, small or medium enterprise with a valid Udyam Registration.
• You hold an active Importer-Exporter Code (IEC) on the DGFT portal.
• You export products falling within the positive list of 4,139 HS six-digit tariff lines notified by DGFT.
• You have sanctioned pre-shipment or post-shipment rupee export credit from a scheduled bank, priced in line with RBI Master Directions on export credit.
• Both manufacturer exporters and merchant exporters qualify, provided the MSME and tariff line conditions are met.

You are not eligible and cannot apply if:

• You are a non-MSME exporter, however large your export book. Large exporters were covered under the old 2% band, which ended on 31 December 2024.
• Your product sits outside the positive list. Steel tariff lines, for example, were specifically left out of the notified list.
• Your export credit is in foreign currency rather than rupees, or is not an export credit facility at all.
• You have already drawn Rs 50 lakh of subvention in the same financial year against the same IEC.
• Your credit is priced outside the RBI framework the scheme references, in which case the bank cannot claim reimbursement.

How to apply for the interest subvention under Niryat Protsahan

1. Check that your Udyam registration and IEC are both live, and confirm your export product's HS six-digit code appears on the DGFT positive list of 4,139 lines.
2. Log in to dgft.gov.in with your registered IEC credentials and digital signature or Aadhaar e-sign.
3. Open the Export Promotion Mission section and file the online intent for interest subvention support on pre- and post-shipment export credit.
4. Submit the intent to generate your Unique Identification Number (UIN). The UIN is the reference that ties your firm to the scheme.
5. Share the UIN with your lending bank and ask them to link it to your pre-shipment packing credit or post-shipment credit account.
6. The bank applies the 2.75% reduction upfront on the interest it charges, then files its reimbursement claim with the implementing agency.
7. Track your cumulative benefit against the Rs 50 lakh annual ceiling, since the cap applies per IEC across all your banking relationships.

Who runs the scheme, RBI or EXIM Bank?

The Reserve Bank of India ran the scheme as the implementing agency on a pilot basis from 2 January 2026, issuing operating guidelines to banks in the same month. DGFT then notified an institutional transition: the Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank) became the implementing agency with effect from 1 April 2026, handling portal management, verification of bank claims and settlement of reimbursements.

The transition was designed to be smoothly for exporters. Supplementary or additional claims from lending banks for the January to March 2026 quarter continue to be processed by RBI, while everything from 1 April 2026 onward moves to EXIM Bank. An exporter's UIN and bank linkage do not need to be re-created because of the change.

What else does Niryat Protsahan offer exporters?

Interest subvention is one of several interventions under the Niryat Protsahan sub-scheme. Three others are relevant to small exporters:

• Collateral guarantee support through the credit guarantee route, covering up to 85% for micro and small exporters and 65% for medium exporters, with maximum exposure of Rs 10 crore per exporter in a financial year.
• Export factoring support, operationalised through DGFT Trade Notice No. 25/2025-26 dated 20 February 2026, which extends a 2.75% subvention on export factoring interest cost with the same Rs 50 lakh annual cap and the same positive-list restriction.
• Credit assistance for e-commerce exporters, operationalised on 6 March 2026, carrying an upfront interest subvention of 2.75% with a per-beneficiary annual ceiling of Rs 15 lakh.

The parallel Niryat Disha sub-scheme funds non-financial support — trade fair and buyer-seller meet participation, reverse buyer delegations, airfare assistance for small exporters, quality and compliance certification, branding, packaging, warehousing and inland transport reimbursement.

How do you check the status of your subvention?

1. Log in to dgft.gov.in and open your dashboard to confirm the UIN issued against your intent filing is active.
2. Check your bank's interest statement on the packing credit account. The subvention shows up as a lower charged rate, not as a credit entry.
3. Ask your relationship manager for the claim status the bank has filed with the implementing agency for the relevant quarter.
4. Reconcile your year-to-date benefit against the Rs 50 lakh cap before drawing further covered credit.

Because the exporter is not the claimant, most disputes are resolved between the bank and the implementing agency. Exporters whose rate has not been reduced should raise it with the bank first, since a missing UIN linkage at the branch is the most common cause.

Why do claims get rejected under the new scheme?

• No live Udyam registration on the date of disbursement, so the borrower is not an MSME for scheme purposes.
• Product outside the 4,139-line positive list, the single most frequent reason, because the old scheme's coverage was different.
• UIN not generated or not linked to the specific credit account at the branch.
• Annual cap exhausted; subvention beyond Rs 50 lakh in the same financial year against one IEC is not admissible.
• Credit not aligned with RBI Master Directions on export credit pricing or tenor.
• Foreign currency export credit wrongly submitted, when only rupee export credit is covered.

Key dates for the transition

Where to raise a grievance

• DGFT helpline: 1800-572-1550 and 1800-111-550, the toll-free numbers listed on dgft.gov.in.
• DGFT online grievance: the Contact@DGFT service on dgft.gov.in, which raises a ticket against your IEC.
• Scheme feedback: DGFT invited comments on the Export Promotion Mission guidelines at the epm-dgft@gov.in mailbox given in its trade notices.
• Your lending bank's nodal officer, for anything to do with how the 2.75% reduction has been applied to your account.

Filing the intent on dgft.gov.in is free. No agent can charge you for "getting approval" for the subvention, and the benefit is applied by the bank automatically once the UIN is linked. Because the scheme is running on a pilot footing with a sub-committee on trade finance reviewing it, exporters should re-check the positive list and the current cap on dgft.gov.in before assuming a shipment is covered.