What Is a Scrip? The Word's Two Meanings in India
A scrip is a document that entitles its holder to receive something. In India the word does two different jobs: in the share market it means an individual listed stock, and in customs law it means a transferable duty credit. This page separates the two, answers the questions the word itself attracts, and then explains the customs instrument, which is what this site is about.
The word itself, and its "full form"
Scrip has no full form, because it is not an abbreviation. It is an old English word for a certificate or token that entitles the holder to something, commonly traced to a shortening of "subscription receipt". Provisional share certificates, company-issued tokens, even substitute money in company towns have all been called scrip. Both modern Indian senses descend from that one idea: a piece of paper, now an electronic entry, that stands for value its holder can claim.
Meaning one: the share market's scrip
In Indian market speech, a scrip is an individual listed share or security. "The scrip touched its fifty-two week high" means that company's stock did. The usage is informal trade vocabulary rather than a defined statutory term, and it is the sense most dictionary results and market pages answer.
If that is the scrip you came for, this site will not help you trade it: Scriphouse has nothing to do with shares. What follows is the other sense, which the same word carries in customs and export circles, and which is easy to land on by accident when searching the market sense, and vice versa.
Meaning two: the customs duty-credit scrip
When an exporter ships goods, embedded Indian duties and taxes leave the country inside the price. The government remits them, not in cash but as a credit: a duty-credit scrip. Under the two live schemes, RoDTEP for exported products generally and RoSCTL for apparel and made-ups, the credit is recorded as an e-scrip in the Electronic Duty Credit Ledger on ICEGATE under the Electronic Duty Credit Ledger Regulations, 2021.
Each scrip carries a face value, a balance, a status, and an expiry two years from its creation in the ledger, the period Regulation 6(2) as amended in September 2022 sets. Against the duties of Customs in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, in practice the basic customs duty line, it pays its full face value. And it is transferable: Regulation 7(1) allows transfer to another person holding a valid Importer-exporter Code, always for the entire amount at a time under Regulation 7(2).
That transferability is why a market exists. An exporter who does not import has no duty to pay, so selling the scrip is the only way they realise the remission; duty-credit scrips explained end to end covers the instrument, and scrip trading in India covers the market it trades in.
Telling the two apart in the wild
Context settles it in a second. Words like broker, intraday, circuit, NSE or BSE, portfolio, and dividend mean the share sense. Words like RoDTEP, RoSCTL, ICEGATE, DGFT, shipping bill, Bill of Entry, face value against duty, and expiry mean the customs sense. A "scrip rate" conversation about percentages of face value is the customs sense; a scrip price in rupees per share is the market sense.
If you typed "script" with a t
Autocorrect adds the t, so search results do too. People looking for this instrument type "RoDTEP script", "duty credit script" or "sell script online", and plenty of what ranks for those searches is spelled the same way. The instrument has no t. It is a scrip, plural scrips, from the same root as subscription: a paper that entitles its holder to something. Every one of those searches is about the customs sense on this page, and only the spelling is off.
So if that was you, here is where each search actually leads: selling one is the exporter flow and the sell walkthrough, what one is worth today is the rate guide, and what the instrument is, end to end, is duty-credit scrips explained.
The customs sense, in one paragraph
A duty-credit scrip is money the government owes an exporter, spendable only at customs, transferable to someone who can spend it, and expiring on its own clock. If you hold one, selling it turns it into cash in your bank the same business day. If you pay customs duty, buying scrips pays the same duty for less than cash. The guide library covers everything in between, from what a RoDTEP scrip is to the GST treatment of a sale.
Common questions about the word
What is the full form of scrip?
Scrip has no full form. It is not an abbreviation or an acronym; it is an old English word for a document that entitles its holder to receive something, commonly traced to a shortening of subscription receipt. Both modern Indian uses, the share-market sense and the customs duty-credit sense, descend from that meaning.
What does scrip mean in the share market?
In Indian market usage, a scrip is an individual listed share or security: when someone says a scrip hit its upper circuit, they mean that company's stock. It is trade speech rather than a defined statutory term. This site is not about that sense; it covers the customs instrument.
What is a scrip in customs and export?
A duty-credit scrip: a transferable credit the government issues to an exporter to remit embedded duties and taxes on what they exported. RoDTEP and RoSCTL credits are recorded as e-scrips in the Electronic Duty Credit Ledger on ICEGATE, carry a face value and an expiry, and pay the duties of Customs in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, in practice basic customs duty.
Is a scrip the same as a share?
No. A share is ownership in a company. A duty-credit scrip is a government-issued credit that pays customs duty. The words collide in India because the market borrowed scrip for shares while customs law uses it for duty credit, but the two instruments have nothing else in common.
Can a scrip be sold?
A duty-credit scrip can. RoDTEP and RoSCTL e-scrips are transferable to another holder of a valid Importer-exporter Code under Regulation 7(1) of the Electronic Duty Credit Ledger Regulations, 2021, and a whole secondary market exists because exporters who do not import cannot otherwise realise the credit.
Why is it spelled scrip and not script?
Scrip and script are different words. A script is written text. A scrip is an entitlement document, and the instrument in customs law is a scrip, plural scrips. Autocorrect pushes hard toward script, which is why the misspelling is everywhere, including in places that trade them. A search that says "RoDTEP script" or "sell script" is about the instrument on this page; only the spelling is off.