How to Verify Indian Suppliers: Records, Certificates and Origin

Most buyers never look a certificate number up. One Australian buyer did, in February 2026, going through a list of GOTS numbers one by one in the scheme's public database, and found that about half weren't there and several of the rest had expired (buyers on r/SustainableFashion (opens in a new tab), 2026). It needed no money, no visit and no Indian login. This page shows you how to run that kind of check on every record an Indian supplier has, from the tax number to the certificate on the wall, and how to read what comes back without jumping at shadows.

One honest caveat before we start. Records tell you who a business is, whether it may export and whether its paperwork hangs together. They can't tell you quality, capacity or what a factory looks like on a Tuesday, and we'll say so wherever that line comes up. (The short version of this page, the decision itself, is in the playbook under how to check an Indian supplier.)

1. Get The Numbers Before You Check Anything

Our Australian buyer could only check numbers because there were numbers to check. So the first move is a single message asking for everything at once - the GST number (GSTIN), the export code (IEC), the export council certificate (RCMC), the company number (CIN) if it's a company, the Udyam number, the numbers on any certificates it claims, and the name on the bank account it will invoice from.

A serious exporter sends these in a day. One that stalls for a week is telling you something too, though usually not that it's a fraud. Often it's a small maker who has never been asked, or a trader who'd rather not name its factory yet. Both are normal, and both are worth knowing about before you go any further.

2. Why One Number Unlocks The Rest

Here's the bit of Indian bureaucracy that makes the whole thing work. A GST number is fifteen characters, and characters 3 to 12 are the PAN, the business's tax identity (CGST Rules, rule 10 (opens in a new tab)). The IEC is the PAN, and there is only one per PAN (DGFT, Foreign Trade Policy para 2.05 (opens in a new tab)). So if you have the GST number, you have the export code too.

That's why the consistency check is the strongest cheap test there is, and why buyers who've done this for years name it first (buyers on forums, 2023 to 2025). The legal name should be the same on the GST record, the IEC, the council certificate, the company register, the proforma invoice and the bank account. A different trade name is fine, since businesses trade under brands all the time. A different legal name is not, because these records share a key and should agree. And if the bank account belongs to someone else then stop and ask why before any money moves.

3. What The GST Record Tells You

The GST taxpayer search (opens in a new tab) takes the GSTIN and a captcha, and it's the richest free record India has. You'll see the legal and trade names, the status, the registration date, the business type, the premises and what each one does, the goods dealt in, and a table of every return filed with its filing date (GSTN user manual).

Start with the taxpayer type, because it decides whether this business can export at all. A composition-scheme taxpayer can't sell across state lines, and exports count as inter-state, so it can't export (CGST Act s.10(2)(c) (opens in a new tab) and IGST Act s.7(5)(a) (opens in a new tab)). If a composition supplier quotes you FOB then someone else will be the exporter. That's normal for small makers who ship through a merchant exporter, so don't walk away. Just ask whose IEC and whose shipping bill it will be.

Then look for a cancellation. A past cancellation date usually means an officer acted, often for six months of non-filing or no business at the declared address (CGST Rules, rule 21 (opens in a new tab)), and invoices after it aren't from a valid registration. This is one of the few findings that ends the conversation.

The filing table is where you learn the history. Many tax periods sharing one filing date means catch-up filing after a lapse, even when every row says "Filed". That's worth a question, not a verdict. Don't read much into the registration date either, since GST only began in July 2017 and plenty of old firms show a 2017 date.

The "Factory/Manufacturing" tick needs the most care. The applicant ticks it, and the documents behind it only prove they occupy the premises (GSTN registration manual). So we treat it as supporting evidence, not proof. It's more useful the other way round. If a supplier's own record ticks only "Wholesale" or "Retail" while it tells you it manufactures, ask about it. The same goes for state. A factory needs a GST registration in the state it ships from, so a number from somewhere else can mean a second registration, a partner unit doing the work (job work is normal and legal), or a factory that isn't theirs.

There's a deeper view behind a login, and it's honestly the most useful one of all. An Indian GST-registered user can see directors, the turnover band and the e-way bill history, and a real maker moves goods under e-way bills every week, so that history is the closest thing to a production log the registry offers. You can't reach it from abroad. SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) can run it for you.

4. The Export Records: IEC And RCMC

DGFT's View Any IEC (opens in a new tab) takes the code and the first three letters of the firm's name. It returns the IEC status, the date of incorporation, the date the IEC was issued, the exporter category and whether the firm is on the Denied Entity List (DGFT, IEC Manual v4.1). The gap between incorporation and IEC tells you how long the business sold at home before it exported, and the category is a free cross-check against the pitch you were given.

The Denied Entity List sounds far worse than it is. It mostly means an unmet export-scheme obligation or an unpaid demand, not fraud, and a firm comes off it once it pays (DGFT, Foreign Trade Policy para 2.14 (opens in a new tab)). Treat it as one question. The same goes for an IEC "deactivated" after 30 June, which usually just means a missed annual update. What an IEC can never tell you is whether the business has actually shipped anything, or how many factories it has.

The RCMC is where things get interesting. It's membership of an export promotion council, valid for five years, and the e-RCMC lookup (opens in a new tab) shows it. A manufacturer-exporter RCMC is the strongest public "we make it" signal India offers, because the council asks for evidence of manufacturing before it issues one (DGFT, Handbook of Procedures para 2.79(a) (opens in a new tab)). If we had to pick one record to trust on the maker question, it would be this one.

A merchant RCMC next to "we are the factory" is a question, not a contradiction, since some makers register as merchants because they also trade. The council should fit the product, and a general FIEO membership suggests a multi-product business. A missing RCMC isn't decisive either. It's needed mainly for export incentives, and since 15 September 2026 consignments of ₹3 lakh FOB or less don't need one at all (DGFT Notification 36/2026-27 (opens in a new tab)). We haven't been able to read the public result screen ourselves, so if a field you need isn't shown, ask for the certificate.

One claim is worth checking whenever you hear it. "Star Export House" status is a DGFT recognition of export performance, and a Two Star firm has exported at least US$15 million (Foreign Trade Policy paras 1.25 to 1.26 (opens in a new tab)). Ask for the DGFT certificate.

5. The Company Register And Udyam

MCA company data (opens in a new tab) only covers companies and LLPs. Lots of good Indian makers are proprietorships or partnerships, so a missing MCA record for one of those is perfectly normal. Where there is a record, check the incorporation date against the history you were told, and the status. Struck off or dormant is a hard contradiction for a firm claiming active production. Low paid-up capital means nothing, since India sets no minimum.

The charges register is our favourite record on MCA, and most buyers never open it. Charges are loans registered against assets, they're open to inspection, and Indian makers usually borrow against their plant (Companies Act 2013, ss.77 and 81). So a big factory "we own" with no charges at all has four explanations. It's self-funded, the building is leased, the loans are in the promoters' own names, or the factory belongs to another group company. None of those is bad. You just want to know which. If you want to go further still, filed accounts can be bought and read, and that's the deepest cheap check on any Indian company.

Udyam (opens in a new tab) is India's small-business register, and it's self-declared. The class it shows (Micro, Small or Medium) comes from machinery investment and turnover, but exports are left out of the turnover test, so "Micro" says nothing about export scale. It does cap machinery, though. A Micro unit claiming heavy in-house dyeing or forging usually has that step done by a partner unit, which is fine. Ask who does it.

And please don't mark a supplier down for being Micro. About 98.8% of India's Udyam registrations are Micro (Udyam dashboard (opens in a new tab), 22 September 2026, our arithmetic). That's where most Indian businesses are, a lot of them are growing, and a small maker is often the one who gives your order its full attention. If a maker you like is missing some of these records, SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) can help them get set up.

Two more records only matter for some buyers. Factories need a state licence under the new labour code, but there's no central public search, so ask for it and match the address. And for products under Indian standards, a BIS licence is tied to a named factory address under inspection, which makes it one of the few records that pins a factory to a regulator (BIS (opens in a new tab)).

6. Putting It Together On One Supplier

Fictional example. "Supplier A" does not exist.

Records make more sense once you watch them agree, and disagree, on one business. Supplier A sends a proforma invoice for cotton towels under the trade name "Aravalli Home", with a GST number starting 33 (Tamil Nadu) and a bank account in the name of Aravalli Home Textiles Private Limited.

You take characters 3 to 12 of the GST number and run them through View Any IEC. The IEC is active, not on the denied list, and the category is manufacturer exporter. The company was incorporated in 2014 and got its IEC in 2016, so it sold at home for two years first. The legal name is the same on GST, IEC, MCA and the bank account, and MCA shows the company is active, filed its March 2025 accounts, and has two loans registered against plant with a Tamil Nadu bank. So far this looks like one real business that borrows against machines it owns.

Then the one mismatch. The GST record puts the business in Karur, but the OEKO-TEX certificate Supplier A sent names an address in Erode. You look it up at OEKO-TEX, not on the PDF, and it's valid but held by Aravalli Processors LLP, a sister concern with the same promoters that does the processing. That's normal in Indian textiles. The questions are whether the Erode unit processes your towels, and whether Supplier A can show the paperwork between the two.

Notice that the mismatch only turned up because someone looked the certificate up, which is exactly our Australian buyer's habit. And notice what the records didn't say. Nothing here tells you whether the towels will be any good.

7. Patterns That Show How A Business Works

Single records rarely mean much on their own. Combinations do, and a few come up again and again. We show them on our supplier pages as light tags - Maker not disclosed, Job-work model, Sister concern holds certificate and Compliance flag - never more than three on a supplier, each with a question to ask. They're signals, not verdicts.

The most common is the intermediary. A recent GST registration, a merchant or FIEO RCMC, no loans against plant and a claimed decades-old factory usually mean you're talking to a trader or agent. That's a normal business model, and large retailers buy through traders every day. The question is who makes your goods and who answers for quality. A blurred or redacted certificate usually points the same way, a trader protecting its maker rather than a forger (an Indian exporter on a forum, 2024).

The opposite pattern is the one you hope for. Clean filings, a declared factory, a manufacturer RCMC from the right council and years of loans against plant point to a real small maker. Capacity is still unproven, so ask to see the line making something like yours. Somewhere in between sit the rest - a brand-new company claiming decades of history (ask what the predecessor was, then check its records), filing gaps or a deactivated IEC (ask what happened, as it may be long resolved), and a certificate held at another address (ask whether it covers your unit).

8. Proof The Supplier Really Exports

An IEC is a licence to export, not a history. For the history you need paper from the supplier, and three documents do the job. A current-year letter of undertaking (LUT) lets an exporter ship without paying GST, and the FY2026-27 one runs to 31 March 2027. An AD code registration shows which ports it ships through. And an e-BRC, the bank's certificate that export payment arrived, has carried the GST invoice number since 13 January 2026, so a redacted one ties to a real sale (DGFT e-BRC FAQ). Ask for two. DGFT's "Source from India" profiles (opens in a new tab) also show an export turnover band for exporters who opted in.

Shipment records help, with a big caveat. US bill-of-lading data names shippers on sea imports, but somewhere between 13 and 85% of India-origin US sea shipments carry no shipper name at all, depending on the product (US bill-of-lading records, our analysis, September 2026). So not being there proves nothing. When a record does name a shipper, read it carefully, because "on behalf of" or "A/C of" means a forwarder shipped it and the company after those words is the real exporter. In one study of ours, 19 of the 20 biggest "Indian suppliers" in US records turned out to be forwarders or logistics firms. For the UK, EU, Australia and New Zealand, official data doesn't name exporters, so the shipping bills and e-BRCs are what you've got. SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) can pull and read a supplier's shipment history for you.

If you're bringing food, spices or botanicals into the US, there's one more check. The FDA's import alerts list firms whose goods can be detained without examination, and Indian firms are a large share of alert 99-19 (FDA import alerts, India (opens in a new tab)). Search the supplier's name before you order.

9. Look Up Every Certificate

This is where our Australian buyer comes back in. A PDF proves someone has a PDF (and a decent printer). Every certificate needs looking up at the scheme's own database, and four things must match - the legal name, the site address, the scope and the validity date. It takes about two minutes a certificate.

The buyer also noticed something subtler than missing numbers. Lots of expired numbers, in that buyer's reading, can mean a manufacturer moving between certifiers after something was found non-compliant. That proves nothing on its own, but it's a fair question. Even so, don't treat a missing GOTS number as a verdict. GOTS says itself that its public database "cannot be used as a definitive verification", so a number that isn't there is a reason to ask the issuing certification body (GOTS TC procedure (opens in a new tab)).

GOTS has one more trap that catches a lot of first-time buyers. A certified factory doesn't make your shipment certified. You need a transaction certificate for each shipment, and without one you can't call the goods organic in your market. The rules around those certificates tighten from 1 January 2027, and our textile certifications guide has the detail.

Most other schemes have a public lookup too. ISO certificates are on IAF CertSearch (opens in a new tab), and not being found there may just mean an unaccredited certification body rather than a fake. OEKO-TEX has Label Check (opens in a new tab) (the numbers are case-sensitive, and the label must match your product class), WRAP has a verify page (opens in a new tab), and Fairtrade has the FLOCERT search (opens in a new tab). Indian marks like BIS (the BIS Care app) and FSSAI (FoSCoS (opens in a new tab)) are checkable too, but remember they cover India's own market, not yours.

Two names get misused all the time. amfori BSCI isn't a certification at all, it's an audit rating from A to E, so ask for the report, the rating and the date. And "Sedex certified" is a misdescription, because SMETA is an audit method, not a certificate (TÜV SÜD). We couldn't read Sedex's own site, so that last point rests on TÜV SÜD's description.

10. Can They Prove Origin?

A certificate proves a site. It doesn't get you a duty rate. Your 0% under the Australia deal, the UK deal or (from 20 October 2026) the New Zealand deal depends on an origin document the supplier has to produce, and plenty of good makers have never done one.

So ask them straight. Can you issue an ECTA certificate of origin for Australia, a New Zealand certificate or declaration, or a UK origin declaration for this product? Have you done it before, for which product and which market? And who signs it, on whose IEC?

Then check the bill of materials, because this is where good orders quietly lose their 0%. Each agreement sets a rule per product, and an imported input can break it. A UK importer warned in 2026 that some Indian manufacturers use Chinese cotton (buyers on r/smallbusinessuk (opens in a new tab), 2026), and imported fabric can fail a garment's rule depending on how it's written. Get the origin of every input, find your product's rule in the agreement's annex, and if it's close then ask for a costed bill of materials and run the value-added sum. The rules for each market are on the Australia, New Zealand and UK trade pages.

11. Seeing It Being Made

Everything so far happens on a screen, and at some point you need to see the thing being made. Audits help, but read them for what they are. A social audit covers labour, hours, safety and wages, and a technical audit covers machines, process control and capacity, and both are dated snapshots, not certificates. Ask for the report, the auditor, the date and the site address, and read the findings rather than the cover page.

A live video walk-through is cheaper than a flight and hard to stage if you run it your way. Pick the time yourself, inside a window you set, with little notice. Ask them to pan slowly from the signage at the gate to the machines, show your fabric or part or sample actually on the line, then the packing area and the finished-goods store. Better still, have a sample made on the machine you're looking at. A factory that makes what it shows can do that in an hour.

Then do a little homework on the address. Check the date on the Street View imagery, ask whether the building fits the process (a dye house needs water and effluent treatment, a forge needs power), and check whether the GST, BIS and certificate addresses are the same place.

And keep one habit forever. Confirm any change of bank details by phone, on a number you already had, never one from the email. No record can prove the person emailing you works for the company.

12. The Questionnaire To Send With Your RFQ

[Component: downloadable list]

This is the one list worth keeping as a list. Send it with your RFQ. A serious supplier can answer it in about an hour, and every answer feeds a check above.

1. Legal name, trade name, GSTIN, IEC, CIN or LLPIN, Udyam number.
2. RCMC: council, type (manufacturer or merchant), validity.
3. The unit that will make this order: address, state, GST registration for that state.
4. Steps done in-house and steps done by partner units, with the partner's name for each.
5. Certificates claimed: scheme, certificate number, holder's legal name, site, scope, expiry.
6. Origin: which proof you can issue for my market, and for which past shipments.
7. Export history: current-year LUT, AD code ports, and two redacted e-BRCs or shipping bills.
8. Bank: account name, bank, branch, and confirmation it matches the GST legal name.
9. Audits in the last two years: type, auditor, date, site.
10. A live video walk-through slot within the next ten working days.

What We Still Don't Know

A few registry screens stayed closed to us, including MCA's inner pages, the public RCMC result and the Udyam verify result, so where we describe their fields we're going on each portal's own manual. India has no central factory-licence search. And we haven't yet measured how often claimed certificates fail the lookup. Our Australian buyer's "about half" is one buyer's list, a warning rather than a rate, so we don't quote it as one.

The lesson we'd take from that buyer is simpler. The checks are free, they take minutes, and the people who bother to run them find things everyone else misses. Where the names come from is on finding suppliers in India, how we turn these records into signals is on how we assess suppliers, and what can still go wrong is on risks. If you'd rather hand the whole job over, SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) runs these checks for you, including the GST view that needs an Indian login.

Next step → MOQ, price and payment