You are the Company Secretary of Pavi Exports Ltd. The company was recently incorporated and has just started its operations in India. Mention in brief the process of registration of export operations to be followed by t

Foreign trade is regulated in India and nodal agency regulating, promoting and facilitating the foreign trade in India is Director General of foreign Trade. To start export-import business following registrations are required. (i) Registration with DGFT It is necessary to get registered with DGFT (Directorate general of Foreign Trade), Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India. DGFT will provide a unique 10-digit code IEC number to Pavi exports Ltd. to carry out export-import activities. (ii) Registration with Export Promotion Council (EPC) Pavi exports Ltd. will have to obtain a Registration-cum-Membership Certificate (RCMC) from the EPC. An application with appropriate membership fee has to be submitted to the EPC. The RCMC is valid for 5 years from 1st April of the licensing year to the 31st march of the expiring year, unless otherwise specified. In addition to this, for tax neutralization, following registrations are required: Excise Control code is issued by Central Excise department and as global practice "goods are exported; taxes are not hence to neutralize the incidence of taxes at both input stage and output state, Pavi Exports Ltd has to get register with Central Excise Department in their zone. Pavi Export Ltd should also get Services Tax registration from concerned zone so as to ensure neutralization/ refund of service tax at both input and output stage. Pavi Export Ltd. should also have VAT/CST registration so as to neutralize the incidence of sales taxes for their export and import operations, following the two golden rules first, "goods are taxed, taxes are not" and second "goods are exported, taxes are not". In addition to that, Pavi Export Ltd may have to register to domestic regulatory body such as FSSAI (in case of food business), BIS (engineering goods) seeds/ plants/ eatables (Plant quarantine) pharma (Drug Controller) etc. depending on nature of their business operations.