RoDTEP Scrip Buyers: Who Buys Them, by Sector, and Why There Is No Public List
Ask who the RoDTEP scrip buyers are and the usual answer is an offer to introduce you to one. The honest answer is shorter and more useful. The buyer of a RoDTEP or RoSCTL e-scrip is an importer with basic customs duty to pay, because that is the only duty the credit can discharge. This guide shows which import sectors carry that duty in size, read from the customs tariff and the Department of Commerce's own import figures, why no public buyers list exists, and what a buyer works within.
A duty credit scrip is worth its face value to exactly one kind of business: an importer whose Bills of Entry carry basic customs duty. Everyone else between an exporter and that importer is an intermediary. So the useful question is not which names to call. It is where in the economy basic customs duty is paid in size and on a rhythm, because that is where scrips are consumed.
Who RoDTEP scrip buyers are, in law
Regulation 6(1) of the Electronic Duty Credit Ledger Regulations, 2021 provides that the duty credit in an e-scrip "shall be used for payment of duties of Customs specified in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975". In practice that is basic customs duty. The answer is the same for both schemes, because Regulation 2(1)(i) defines the Scheme as RoDTEP or RoSCTL and the regulations govern both alike.
The other charges on an import sit outside that sentence. Integrated tax and compensation cess on imported goods are charged by section 3(7) and section 3(9) of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, and the Social Welfare Surcharge by section 110 of the Finance Act, 2018. None of them is a First Schedule duty, so none of them is paid from a scrip. An importer's appetite for scrips is set by one line of the Bill of Entry, not by the total at the foot of it. What duties a scrip can pay works that limit through in full.
Regulation 7(1) adds the second condition: a transfer is allowed only to a person "who is a holder of an Importer-exporter Code Number" issued under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992. So a buyer is an IEC holder with basic customs duty to pay. An exporter who also imports qualifies on the same footing. An importer whose goods clear at nil basic customs duty, whether because the schedule rate is nil, an exemption notification applies or a trade agreement rate is nil, has nothing for a scrip to discharge on those entries.
Why there is no public RoDTEP buyers list
Because the regulations keep the ledger private. Regulation 6(4) makes the ledger, including each e-scrip and the transactions in it, visible "to the recipient of such duty credit and the Customs", and Regulation 7(4) says the same of a transferee's ledger: visible "to the transferee and the Customs". Nothing in the regulations publishes who holds an e-scrip, who has bought one or who has used one against a Bill of Entry, and we found no official register that does.
So treat a list of company names offered as RoDTEP buyers with care. It did not come from an official register of buyers, because none is published. And even an accurate list answers the wrong question. Demand for scrips is not a set of names. It is basic customs duty falling due on Bills of Entry this week, and a name tells you none of what matters: whether the firm has duty due, how much, what it would pay for face value, or whether it pays before the transfer is approved or after. Working through a list turns a sale into a private negotiation with a stranger, which is the arrangement the scams guide is written about.
RoDTEP scrip buyers by sector: where basic customs duty is material
If the buyer is whoever pays basic customs duty, the sectors follow from two official sources read side by side. The rate is the standard rate in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, as published in ICEGATE's customs tariff enquiry and shown line by line in the HS code directory. The value is India's import value by tariff chapter from the Department of Commerce's TradeStat import database, compiled by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics. India imported goods worth Rs 68,56,808 crore in FY 2025-26, April 2025 to March 2026, against Rs 60,98,210 crore the year before.
The table lists every chapter that took at least Rs 30,000 crore of imports in FY 2025-26 and whose middle half of tariff lines carries a schedule rate of 7.5 per cent or more, largest first. The BCD column, basic customs duty at the schedule rate, is that middle half: a quarter of the chapter's lines sit below the lower figure and a quarter above the higher one. The import figure in brackets is the chapter's share of all imports that year.
| Ch. | Goods, and where the duty sits | Imports, FY 2025-26 | BCD, most lines |
|---|---|---|---|
| 71 | Pearls, precious stones and precious metals. Gold, heading 7108, was Rs 6,39,522 crore of it, diamonds Rs 1,44,887 crore and silver Rs 1,07,394 crore, all at 10 per cent at the schedule rate. Jewellery carries 20, imitation jewellery 25. | Rs 9,72,099 crore (14.2%) | 10% |
| 85 | Electrical machinery and electronics. Smartphones carry 20 per cent. Integrated circuits, heading 8542, were Rs 2,68,235 crore of the chapter and are nil on all but one line, as are most diodes, transistors, capacitors and bare printed circuits. The duty sits on finished goods and many parts, not on chips. | Rs 9,27,363 crore (13.5%) | 7.5% to 15% |
| 84 | Machinery and mechanical appliances. 829 of the chapter's 1,059 lines carry 7.5 per cent, so capital goods and their parts make a broad, even base. Air conditioners carry 20. | Rs 6,54,715 crore (9.5%) | 7.5% |
| 29 | Organic chemicals. 809 of 882 lines at 7.5 per cent. A manufacturer importing intermediates every month pays it on every entry. | Rs 2,24,279 crore (3.3%) | 7.5% |
| 39 | Plastics and articles of plastic. Polymers in primary form mostly at 7.5 per cent, plates and sheets at 20, packaging and most other articles at 10 to 15. | Rs 1,96,243 crore (2.9%) | 7.5% to 20% |
| 15 | Animal and vegetable fats and oils. Palm oil was Rs 84,840 crore, soya bean oil Rs 54,721 crore and sunflower and related oils Rs 29,416 crore. The schedule rate is 100 per cent on palm and sunflower oil and 45 on soya oil: the highest on this list, and the clearest case for checking the exemption notification in force before sizing a purchase. | Rs 1,74,761 crore (2.5%) | 30% to 100% |
| 72 | Iron and steel. Flat-rolled products, bars, wire and alloy steel at 15 per cent; ferro-alloys mostly 5 and scrap 2.5. | Rs 1,38,966 crore (2.0%) | 15% |
| 90 | Optical, measuring and medical instruments. Medical, optical and laboratory instruments mostly at 7.5 or 10 per cent; flow and pressure instruments under heading 9026 are nil. | Rs 1,35,820 crore (2.0%) | 7.5% to 10% |
| 28 | Inorganic chemicals. 262 of 331 lines at 7.5 per cent, with 26 nil lines. | Rs 1,24,190 crore (1.8%) | 7.5% |
| 76 | Aluminium and articles of aluminium. Unwrought aluminium and semi-finished forms at 7.5 per cent, articles at 10, scrap at 2.5. | Rs 88,420 crore (1.3%) | 7.5% to 10% |
| 87 | Vehicles and parts. Cars and motorcycles at 70 per cent at the schedule rate, parts and accessories of motor vehicles at 15, tractors at 10. | Rs 82,694 crore (1.2%) | 15% to 70% |
| 38 | Miscellaneous chemical products. Mostly 7.5 per cent, a third of the lines at 10. | Rs 78,136 crore (1.1%) | 7.5% to 10% |
| 08 | Edible fruit and nuts. Most lines at 30 per cent, with some higher and a few lower or nil. | Rs 51,780 crore (0.8%) | 30% |
| 73 | Articles of iron or steel. Tubes, structures, fasteners and fittings: 238 of 250 lines at 15 per cent, the rest at 20. | Rs 50,794 crore (0.7%) | 15% |
| 40 | Rubber and articles of rubber. Most articles at 10 per cent; natural rubber lines at 10, 25 and 70. | Rs 43,924 crore (0.6%) | 10% |
| 89 | Ships, boats and floating structures. Varies by vessel type, with a few nil lines. | Rs 40,394 crore (0.6%) | 10% to 20% |
| 07 | Edible vegetables, including pulses. Vegetables mostly at 30 per cent, dried pulses at 30 to 70. | Rs 32,493 crore (0.5%) | 30% |
| 30 | Pharmaceutical products. 223 of 226 lines at 10 per cent. | Rs 31,907 crore (0.5%) | 10% |
Add up TradeStat's shares and these eighteen chapters were 59 per cent of the value India imported in FY 2025-26.
Large import chapters where a scrip has little to do
Value alone does not make a buyer. Six large chapters fall outside the table because their schedule rates are low, or because their value sits in low-rate lines. Together they were 33.5 per cent of FY 2025-26 imports.
- Chapter 27, mineral fuels and oils. The largest import chapter by far, Rs 17,93,565 crore or 26.2 per cent of all imports, and crude petroleum, heading 2709, was Rs 11,87,371 crore of that on its own. Yet most of the chapter's lines carry 2.5 or 5 per cent at the schedule rate, so for its size it absorbs few scrips.
- Chapter 31, fertilisers, Rs 1,28,810 crore: 5 to 7.5 per cent at the schedule rate.
- Chapter 88, aircraft, Rs 1,20,951 crore: most of the chapter's lines carry 10 per cent, but heading 8802, aeroplanes, helicopters and spacecraft, was Rs 1,12,660 crore of it, and its aeroplane and helicopter lines carry 2.5.
- Chapter 74, copper, Rs 1,12,942 crore: 5 per cent on refined copper, wire and most semi-finished forms.
- Chapter 26, ores, slag and ash, Rs 92,153 crore: mostly 2.5 per cent or nil.
- Chapter 25, salt, sulphur, earths and stone, Rs 46,765 crore: mostly 5 per cent.
A handful of smaller chapters are largely nil at the schedule rate: every line of nickel (chapter 75), and between roughly a third and a half of the lines in cereals (10), raw hides and skins (41), tin (80) and other base metals (81). A scrip has little to do on those entries.
How to read the table, and how not to
- It is the schedule rate, not the assessed rate. The figures are the standard rates in the First Schedule. A great many consignments are assessed lower under an exemption notification or a trade agreement rate, which the table does not apply, and on a nil-rated entry a scrip has nothing to pay.
- The range counts tariff lines, not rupees. A chapter whose imports concentrate in a few lines can trade at a rate the line count does not show. That is why chapter 88 sits in the list above rather than in the table, and why the table names the headings that carry the value.
- Import value is not duty paid. We have not multiplied one column by the other, because the product would not be the duty anyone paid. It shows where the duty base is, not its size.
- Your own tariff line decides it. Look up your codes in the HS code directory, or work a consignment through the customs duty calculator, which separates the basic customs duty line from the rest of the bill.
Which importers gain most from buying scrips
Inside any sector, the importer who gains most is the one with basic customs duty on a calendar. A scrip bought below face pays a rupee of basic customs duty for each rupee of face, so the saving is the discount multiplied by the duty the scrip discharges. Four things decide how large that is.
- Recurrence. A Bill of Entry every week or every month, each carrying basic customs duty, is a known stream of duty to buy against. A one-off import can use a scrip too, but the saving happens once.
- The rate on your line. On Rs 1 crore of assessable value, a line at 7.5 per cent carries Rs 7.5 lakh of basic customs duty and a line at 20 per cent carries Rs 20 lakh. The second absorbs more than two and a half times the face value, and earns the discount on all of it.
- Fit against whole scrips. Regulation 7(2) provides that the duty credit in an e-scrip is transferred at a time for the entire amount and not in part, so you buy whole scrips. Credit left after one entry stays in the e-scrip for the next; Regulation 6(2) provides only that whatever is unused at the end of the validity period lapses.
- Runway. An e-scrip is valid for two years from its creation in the ledger under Regulation 6(2), as amended by Notification 79/2022-Customs (N.T.), and Regulation 7(3) provides that transfer does not change that period. A buyer inherits whatever is left, so the question is whether your duty calendar uses the face value before the date on the scrip.
The arithmetic is plain. An importer whose entries carry Rs 5,00,000 of basic customs duty a month saves Rs 5,000 a month for every percentage point of discount to face on the scrips that pay it. What it does not touch: integrated tax, compensation cess and the Social Welfare Surcharge are paid in cash exactly as before.
What a buyer works within
- Basic customs duty only. Regulation 6(1), as above. Nothing else on the Bill of Entry.
- An IEC. Regulation 7(1) allows transfer only to a holder of an Importer-exporter Code.
- Whole scrips, inherited validity. Regulations 7(2) and 7(3): no part transfers, and no fresh clock on transfer. When a scrip expires covers the validity rules.
- The transfer happens on ICEGATE. Regulation 7(1) allows transfer "within the customs automated system" from one ledger to another, so the credit is in your own Electronic Duty Credit Ledger before you file the entry. The steps on both sides are in how to transfer a duty credit scrip on ICEGATE.
- No GST on the scrip. The sale of a duty credit scrip is exempt from GST under S. No. 137 of Notification 10/2025-Central Tax (Rate), in force from 22 September 2025; a transfer made on or before 21 September 2025 cites S. No. 122A of Notification 02/2017-Central Tax (Rate). So the face value you buy carries no GST. GST on duty credit scrips has the detail, including the fee.
- Onward transfer is unsettled. Regulation 7 sets no limit on how many times a credit may move, and nothing published settles whether a transferee can transfer onward. Plan a purchase around using it against your own duty, which is the case the rules clearly support.
- The scheme clock. RoDTEP is notified to 31 December 2026 by DGFT Notification 41/2026-27, and RoSCTL to the same date by Ministry of Textiles F.No. 12015/12/2026-TTP(Pt.1) dated 30 September 2026. If no continuation is notified, fresh credits stop accruing when the notified period ends; a scrip already created keeps its own two-year validity.
How an importer buys
Size first. Total the basic customs duty on your next month or quarter of Bills of Entry, using the customs duty calculator for any line you have not cleared before, and buy face value against that figure rather than a round number. On Scriphouse you see one firm price for the face value you need, held for sixty seconds and capped at face, the first trade on each IEC is free, and the credit is in your ledger the same business day, ready for the entry. How Scriphouse works for importers sets out the terms, and how to buy duty credit scrips online walks the purchase step by step, including the checks worth making on a scrip whichever way you buy it.
What we could not establish
- Who the buyers are, by name. Regulations 6(4) and 7(4) keep each ledger visible to its holder and to Customs, and we found no official publication of who buys or uses e-scrips. We do not publish names, and we would not trust a list that did.
- How much basic customs duty each sector actually pays. The table sets the schedule rate beside the import value and stops there. Exemption notifications, trade agreement rates and duty-free import schemes all sit between the two, and we did not find an official figure for customs duty collected by tariff chapter.
- How much duty is already paid by scrip. We did not find a published figure for basic customs duty discharged by debiting e-scrips, by sector or in total, so we cannot say which sectors already use scrips most.
- Revisions to the import figures. The values are the ones the TradeStat database returned when this guide was written. The Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics can revise a year's figures, and the database as published governs.
Checked against the instruments and databases named on this page: the Electronic Duty Credit Ledger Regulations, 2021 as amended, ICEGATE's customs tariff enquiry, and the TradeStat import database.
Frequently asked questions
Who buys RoDTEP scrips?
Importers with basic customs duty to pay. Regulation 6(1) of the Electronic Duty Credit Ledger Regulations, 2021 confines an e-scrip to duties of customs specified in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, which is basic customs duty, and Regulation 7(1) allows transfer only to a holder of an Importer-exporter Code. So the buyer is an IEC holder whose Bills of Entry carry basic customs duty. RoSCTL scrips are bought by the same importers, because the same regulations govern both.
Is there a list of RoDTEP scrip buyers in India?
Not an official one. Regulations 6(4) and 7(4) make an e-scrip ledger visible only to its holder and to Customs, and no register of buyers is published. A list of company names offered as RoDTEP buyers did not come from an official register, and it cannot tell you whether a firm has basic customs duty due, how much, or what it would pay.
Which industries buy RoDTEP scrips?
Those whose imports carry basic customs duty in size. Reading the First Schedule rates beside the Department of Commerce's FY 2025-26 import figures, the largest are precious stones and metals, electronics, machinery, organic chemicals, plastics, edible oils, iron and steel, and instruments. Mineral fuels are the largest import chapter but carry low schedule rates, so they absorb few scrips for their size. The rate a consignment is actually assessed at can be lower under an exemption notification.
How much of my import duty can a RoDTEP scrip pay?
Only the basic customs duty line. Integrated tax, compensation cess and the Social Welfare Surcharge are levied by other provisions and are paid in cash whatever your scrip balance. On a line at 7.5 per cent, Rs 1 crore of assessable value carries Rs 7.5 lakh of basic customs duty, and that is the face value a scrip can discharge on it.
Is GST payable when you buy a RoDTEP scrip?
No. The sale of a duty credit scrip is exempt from GST under S. No. 137 of Notification 10/2025-Central Tax (Rate), in force from 22 September 2025. A transfer made on or before 21 September 2025 cites S. No. 122A of Notification 02/2017-Central Tax (Rate).