RoDTEP 2026: The February Cut, the March Restoration, the Fine Print

DGFT Notification No. 60/2025-26, dated 23 February 2026, restricted the RoDTEP rates and value caps to 50% of their previously notified levels with immediate effect, across both schedules — Appendix 4R (Domestic Tariff Area exports) and Appendix 4RE (exports from Advance Authorisation holders, EOUs and SEZ units). The cut applied uniformly to every eligible tariff line: every Appendix 4R and 4RE entry — including the lithium-ion accumulator line at HS 85076000 — fell to half its notified rate overnight, with per-unit value caps halved alongside the percentages.

On 24 February 2026, a corrigendum (File No. 01/94/180/019/AM26/PC-4) carved out exports falling under ITC HS Chapters 01 to 24 — agricultural and food products — which continued at unreduced rates. All other chapters, including the engineering and electronics lines relevant to EV and auto-component exporters, remained under the 50% restriction.

DGFT Notification No. 66/2025-26, dated 23 March 2026, restored the RoDTEP rates and value caps "as applicable on February 22, 2026" for all eligible export products, superseding Notification 60/2025-26 and its corrigendum "except as respects things done or omitted to be done before such supersession" (para 3). The same-day PIB release (PRID 2244147) attributes the restoration to elevated freight costs and war-related trade risks in the Gulf and wider West Asia maritime corridor.

The fine print arrived by corrigendum. Para 2 of Notification 66 as first issued read the restoration as effective "from February 23, 2026 to March 31, 2026" — full retroactivity, erasing the cut. The corrigendum (File No. 01/94/180/003/AM26/PC-4) re-issued para 2 to read "restored with effect from March 23, 2026 to March 31, 2026," aligning the text with the Central Government's decision. The restoration is therefore prospective only: exports in the intervening month keep the halved rates, and no differential is paid for that window.

The reconciliation surface this leaves for exporters is the gap between the rate assumed at declaration and the rate applied at scroll. RoDTEP intent is declared in the Shipping Bill before LEO — the RODTEPY flag and its accompanying RD001 statement — but the credit itself materialises later, as e-scrips generated from scrolls on ICEGATE. Shipments declared in January at full rates, shipped in the cut window, scrolled after restoration: the e-scrip ledger entry reflects the rate in force on the export date, not the rate assumed when the FOB price was quoted or the incentive was accrued in the books. Costings, incentive accruals and e-scrip ledger balances for the 23 February–22 March window therefore reconcile only against the halved schedule, and any accrual booked at full rates for that window overstates the entitlement.

The episode also documents, with unusual precision, that RoDTEP rates are administrative instruments that can halve and restore within 28 days — the schedule in force on a shipment's LEO date, not the schedule in force at quotation, determines the entitlement. Where the declaration itself is mis-keyed, the error joins the same post-LEO rigidity that governs the ICEGATE Shipping Bill error codes: the declaration window closes at LEO, and the rate window closes by gazette.