The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has enabled automated issuance of Free Sale and Commerce Certificates (FSC) on the DGFT portal. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry said that these Certificates are issued to exporters under the Foreign Trade Policy for items which are not covered under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.

It said that eligible applications will now be considered for automatic issuance in accordance with the prevailing framework, without being routed for manual scrutiny. The automated mechanism is expected to reduce processing time for a significant category of FSC applications and lower the compliance burden associated with the earlier manual process. The initiative is expected to make the issuance of Free Sale and Commerce Certificates more efficient, transparent and predictable for exporters and administering authorities.