DGFT portal: Missions must update complaints until disposal

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has amended the procedure for handling quality complaints and trade disputes, requiring Indian missions abroad and the Department of Commerce’s concerned Foreign Trade divisions to update complaint records on the DGFT portal until resolution or final disposal. Its public notice dated 3 November 2026 also expressly requires those updates to be accessible to the complainant.

The notice replaces paragraph 8.04(iii) of the Handbook of Procedures, 2023, the provision governing Indian missions’ role in taking up these complaints with the authorities concerned. The amended text covers both complaints filed by applicants and those referred by the Department of Commerce’s Foreign Trade divisions.

For businesses pursuing a complaint, the change concerns the information they can see as officials handle the matter. Under the replacement provision, the portal record must include both the action taken and the status of each complaint, rather than simply a general status update.

What changes in the reporting obligation

The earlier wording, reproduced in DGFT’s notice, said Indian missions would take up an issue with the authorities concerned to resolve the complaint and update its status online regularly. It did not expressly name the Foreign Trade divisions as sharing that reporting responsibility.

The replacement provision names both the missions abroad and the concerned Foreign Trade divisions. It requires them to update the record periodically and specifies how long that obligation continues: until the complaint is resolved or finally disposed of.

The amended text also states: “All such updates shall be accessible to the complainant through the DGFT portal.” This makes complainant access an express requirement within the provision being replaced.

DGFT’s statement of the notice’s effect reinforces the duration of the reporting duty. It says missions and the concerned Foreign Trade division must ensure timely updates on a continuous basis until a matter is resolved, closed or otherwise disposed of under the prescribed procedure.

The notice therefore distinguishes resolution from other ways of closing a complaint. Its wording does not make a favourable settlement a condition for ending the reporting obligation; final disposal is also an endpoint.

Complaints filed directly and referrals from Commerce

Under the amended paragraph, Indian missions abroad must take up complaints with the authorities concerned for appropriate redressal. DGFT identifies two routes through which these matters may reach a mission: an applicant’s complaint or a referral from the concerned Foreign Trade division of the Department of Commerce.

The referral route is now expressly included alongside applicant-filed complaints. The reporting requirement applies to the missions and the concerned divisions, making the portal the specified place for recording their action and the complaint’s progress.

DGFT issued the amendment under paragraphs 1.03 and 2.04 of the Foreign Trade Policy, 2023. The notice’s stated scope is the substitution of paragraph 8.04(iii) in Chapter 8 of the Handbook of Procedures; it does not set out a replacement for the entire complaints mechanism.

The disputes covered by the earlier online framework

DGFT’s trade notice dated 11 February 2019 described the kinds of international trade complaints addressed by the mechanism then provided under the Foreign Trade Policy and Handbook of Procedures, 2015-2020.

Those included complaints from foreign buyers about poor-quality products supplied by Indian exporters, as well as complaints from Indian importers about the quality of products supplied by foreign businesses.

The 2019 notice also covered complaints about commercial dealings beyond product quality. Its examples included goods not supplied, or supplied only partly, after an order was confirmed; goods different from those agreed upon; non-payment; and failure to meet delivery schedules.

These were categories of complaints the mechanism was intended to address, not findings against any particular business. The November amendment does not announce a decision in an individual dispute or identify companies against which action has been taken.

Online tracking predates this amendment

The portal requirement builds on an older move away from manual processing. In its February 2019 trade notice, DGFT said quality complaints and trade disputes had until then been filed, received and processed manually. It directed that such complaints be filed online from 11 February 2019.

That notice described a system in which submission generated a Unique Reference Number, beginning with “Q”, sent to the complainant’s email address. The reference number was to identify subsequent correspondence, while a status-viewing facility allowed the complainant to follow the case.

The 2019 procedure also assigned responsibilities to DGFT’s regional authorities and special economic zone authorities. They were to take steps towards resolving grievances, reassign applications submitted to the wrong jurisdiction and regularly update case positions so that complainants and DGFT headquarters could track progress.

Complainant tracking is therefore not a facility first introduced by the November 2026 amendment. The new wording specifically addresses the reporting responsibilities of missions abroad and Foreign Trade divisions, the information to be recorded and its availability through the DGFT portal.

The 3 November notice uses “periodically” for updates and calls for timely reporting on a continuous basis, but it gives no fixed interval in days. It also sets no deadline for resolving a complaint. Those distinctions limit what the amendment promises: continuing visibility of action and status, rather than a specified timetable for settlement.