1. Why Can't My Supplier Just Export?
Usually for one of three ordinary reasons, and none of them makes it a bad maker.
It has no IEC. Plenty of good workshops sell only inside India. An IEC is quick to get, and the steps are on our IEC and RCMC guide, but a maker that has never exported may not want to start on your order.
Its GST registration doesn't allow it. Small firms often register under GST's composition scheme, which keeps their tax simple. GST law treats an export as an inter-State supply, which a composition registrant can't make, so it can't be the exporter under that registration. Ask whether the supplier is "regular" or "composition". The check is on what an Indian GST number tells you.
The paperwork after shipment puts it off. An export isn't finished when the ship sails. The exporter's bank has to match your payment to its shipping bill and close it. An Indian handicraft exporter wrote that the bank first quoted a fee per bill and that clearing a backlog of 2,000-plus small bills "is a nightmare" (our forum signal FS-SUP-054, 2025). For a maker selling you one small order, that is a real cost. It's why some say "you arrange it".
2. Can a Logistics Provider Be the Exporter?
Not by moving the goods. This is the point buyers miss. When a maker says it will "hand over to logistics", the forwarder or customs broker it means files the shipping bill on someone's IEC. A broker acts for an exporter. It doesn't become one by trucking your cartons to the port. Our exporting from India section sets out the filing on ICEGATE and the Let Export Order that comes back.
So ask the forwarder one plain question: "Whose IEC goes on the shipping bill?" If the answer is the maker's, the maker is the exporter after all and just doesn't want the work, which is fine. If the maker has no IEC and the forwarder says it will "manage", ask what that means in writing. A firm that puts its own name on goods it never bought is taking a risk with Indian customs, and that risk can land on your shipment.
3. What Are My Real Options?
Three, in practice.
The maker registers and uses a broker. It gets an IEC (and moves to regular GST if it needs to), and a customs broker does the filing. This is cleanest for you. The maker is the exporter, you pay the maker, and the maker's own records back any origin claim. It suits a supplier you plan to buy from for years. Expect a slower first shipment.
A merchant exporter buys and exports. An Indian trading firm buys the goods from your maker on its own invoice and exports them in its own name. That is a normal Indian model, explained on trading companies and merchant exporters. The exporter adds a margin and becomes the party you contract with, so quality claims now run through it as well as the maker. Pick one that will name the maker to you.
An exporter-of-record service. A specialist does the same job as a merchant exporter but works for you, with your maker and your price. It buys from the maker, files the export, gets the certificates and receives your payment. SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) can act as exporter of record and run the export clearance for buyers whose maker can't export, so you keep the maker you chose.
One option isn't on the list. You, as a foreign company without an Indian entity, can't be the exporter.
4. Who Do I Pay When Someone Else Exports?
The exporter of record, in its own name. Indian export rules track your money against the exporter's shipping bill through its bank, and the bank closes the bill once the money arrives. If you pay the maker while a different firm is the exporter, that firm's bill sits open and its bank asks questions. The registrations involved, from the bank's AD code to the e-BRC, are listed on exporting from India.
So the shape is simple. You pay the exporter of record. It pays the maker. The commercial invoice, the packing list, the shipping bill and your bank transfer all carry the same name. A request to split payment between two Indian firms is worth a careful question before you agree to it.
5. What Happens to My Certificate of Origin?
It follows the exporter, and this is where a hand-off can quietly cost you a 0% rate. A preferential certificate is applied for by the Indian exporter, and it needs origin working behind it - a cost sheet showing how the goods meet the agreement's rule, with the source of each input (certificate of origin guide). If the exporter didn't make the goods, it has to get that working from the maker.
Makers are sometimes reluctant to show a trader their costs, and that's understandable. So agree it at the start. The maker shares its bill of materials with the exporter of record, under confidentiality if needed, and the exporter applies for the certificate against the final invoice. If nobody does this, plan on the full duty rate, which is our reading of how these hand-offs go (Indicative). What the paper does at your border is on certificate of origin.
6. What Should I Agree Before I Pay a Deposit?
Five lines, in writing:
- The exporter of record's legal name, IEC and GST number, checked on DGFT and the GST portal.
- Who buys from the maker, and whose name is on each invoice.
- The Incoterm, usually FOB or FCA, with the exporter of record as seller.
- Which certificate of origin you need, and who gives the cost working to whom.
- Where your payment goes. One bank account, in the exporter of record's name.
Questions Buyers Ask
