India's Leading Export Goods in 2023

India's Leading Export Goods in 2023

India's top six export categories in 2023 were petroleum products (roughly US$ 96–100 billion), engineering goods (roughly US$ 100–107 billion), agricultural and marine products (around US$ 50–53 billion), gems and jewellery (US$ 32–40 billion), pharmaceuticals (approximately US$ 25–28 billion) and electronics (US$ 23–29 billion, the fastest-growing segment). Together they accounted for roughly 75–80% of merchandise exports that held broadly stable at US$ 437–447 billion despite weak global demand. The Foreign Trade Policy 2023 (FTP 2023), effective 1 April 2023, introduced India's first permanent, no-sunset-date policy framework — with RoDTEP, Advance Authorisation and EPCG as operational pillars directly benefiting exporters in every one of these sectors.

The 2023 Merchandise Export Scorecard

Before drilling into individual categories, it is worth grounding yourself in the aggregate picture. India's goods exports for FY 2022-23 stood at approximately US$ 447 billion, and for FY 2023-24 at approximately US$ 437 billion — a modest contraction driven primarily by softer commodity prices and a European demand slowdown, not a loss of market share. Services exports, led by IT-ITES, crossed US$ 340 billion in 2023, quietly placing India among the global top three commercial services exporters.

The composition of the goods basket matters as much as the headline number. Petroleum products and engineering goods together represent nearly 40% of merchandise exports — a concentration that creates both resilience (these are globally demanded commodities) and vulnerability (commodity price swings directly affect realisation). Diversification into electronics, pharmaceuticals and niche agri-products is the stated policy priority under FTP 2023, and the numbers from 2023 show that shift has begun in earnest.

For FY 2026-27 planning, the 2023 basket remains the reference point. The government's target of US$ 2 trillion in total exports (goods + services) by 2030 — reaffirmed in Union Budget 2025-26 — requires that electronics, pharma and services each grow at compound rates of 15–20% per year. Whether you are an exporter, a banker financing export receivables, or a CA advising on FTP scheme eligibility, understanding why each category performs the way it does is foundational.

Petroleum Products: India's Refinery Arbitrage

Refined petroleum products — diesel, gasoline, aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and naphtha — were India's single largest export line in 2023, contributing approximately 18–22% of total merchandise export value. The story behind this is structural: India's refining capacity is over 250 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA), and the Jamnagar complex operated by Reliance Industries alone is the world's largest single-location refinery.

The 2022–23 and 2023 surge had a specific driver. After Western sanctions on Russian energy following the Ukraine conflict, Indian refiners imported deeply discounted Russian Urals crude and processed it into refined products sold at market rates to Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia. The margin on this "buy cheap, refine, sell at market" arbitrage was unusually high — and India captured it.

From a compliance standpoint, petroleum exports generally do not benefit from RoDTEP (petroleum is excluded from the RoDTEP schedule) or Advance Authorisation in the conventional sense, because the import of crude is itself zero-duty. However, exporters in this sector do use the EPCG scheme for import of refinery maintenance equipment and turnaround machinery. If you are advising a mid-size refinery on EPCG eligibility, note that capital goods used exclusively for domestic purposes do not qualify — the export nexus must be demonstrable and documented in the application to DGFT.

Engineering Goods: India's Breadth Export

Engineering goods is an umbrella term covering iron and steel products, industrial machinery, auto components, electrical equipment, structural fabrications, railway materials and allied products. In FY 2022-23 this segment touched approximately US$ 107 billion, making it the second-largest export category. The Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC India) is the principal body regulating and promoting this sector.

What makes engineering goods distinctive is geographic and buyer diversity. Auto components go to North America (under USMCA supply-chain integration with Tier-1 OEMs) and Europe. Transformers and switchgear go to Sub-Saharan Africa. Process machinery and pumps go to Southeast Asia and the Middle East. This diversification means engineering goods exports are less vulnerable to a single buyer-country downturn.

Three FTP 2023 schemes are particularly important for engineering goods exporters:

• RoDTEP: Rates for engineering goods HS codes generally range from 0.5% to 2.5% of FOB value (as notified in the rate schedule appended to DGFT notification). You must declare your RoDTEP claim at the time of Shipping Bill filing on the ICEGATE portal — it is not retrospective.
• EPCG: Import capital goods at 0% Basic Customs Duty (BCD) against an export obligation (EO) of 6× the duty saved, to be fulfilled within 6 years.
• Advance Authorisation: Import raw materials (e.g., alloy steel, copper rods) duty-free against Standard Input-Output Norms (SION) notified by DGFT. The authorisation is valid for 12 months for import; export obligation must be fulfilled within 18 months of the last import.

Gems and Jewellery: CEPA Gains and the Lab-Grown Inflection

The Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) oversees a sector that was India's third-largest merchandise export as recently as FY 2021-22. In 2023, the picture was more nuanced. Total gems and jewellery exports ranged from US$ 32–40 billion — with cut and polished diamonds under pressure (global rough diamond demand softened; Antwerp volumes declined) but gold jewellery and lab-grown diamonds registering notable growth.

Two structural shifts deserve attention. First, the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), effective May 2022, eliminated duties on gold jewellery exported from India to the UAE, which re-exports to global markets. This gave Indian jewellery manufacturers a meaningful price advantage over competitors from Italy and Turkey. If you are a jewellery exporter and have not already registered with GJEPC and enrolled under the UAE CEPA preferential tariff mechanism, you are leaving margin on the table.

Second, lab-grown diamonds (LGDs) — manufactured using Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) technology primarily in Surat — crossed US$ 1.5 billion in exports in FY 2023-24 and are growing at over 20% annually. LGDs qualify for RoDTEP and are treated as goods under the Advance Authorisation scheme. The HS classification (Chapter 71) is the same as natural diamonds, but DGFT requires a declaration of LGD origin on the shipping bill to ensure correct scheme mapping.

Pharmaceuticals: Generic Power, Regulatory Leverage

India is the world's third-largest pharmaceutical producer by volume and the largest supplier of generic medicines globally. Pharma exports in 2023 were approximately US$ 25–28 billion, with the United States, European Union, South Africa and CIS countries as the top four destination groups. The US alone accounts for roughly 30–32% of India's pharma export value, primarily in finished dosage formulations.

The Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for pharmaceuticals — administered by the Department of Pharmaceuticals — incentivises domestic production of bulk drugs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, or APIs), medical devices and high-value complex generics. PLI beneficiaries must report incremental sales annually; the incentive rate for the pharmaceutical PLI is 10% of incremental sales in year 1–3, stepping down to 4% in year 6.

For FTP 2023 purposes, pharma exporters benefit significantly from Advance Authorisation. A common use case: import key starting materials (KSMs) and intermediates duty-free, manufacture API or finished formulations, export the finished product. SION norms for pharma are detailed in Appendix 4B of FTP 2023. If your formulation's SION has not been updated to reflect your current process, you must apply for a custom (ad-hoc) SION from the Norms Committee — a process that takes approximately 6–9 months. Plan accordingly.

Pharmexcil (Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India) is the mandatory EPC for pharma exporters. Membership and Pharmexcil registration number are required on all export documentation.

Electronics and Mobile Phones: The Structural Inflection Point

Electronics was 2023's headline story. Exports crossed US$ 25–29 billion in FY 2023-24, led by smartphones — specifically Apple iPhones assembled by Foxconn and Pegatron at their Tamil Nadu facilities. Apple's India-made iPhone exports alone were estimated at approximately US$ 14 billion in FY 2023-24, a number that was near-zero three years prior.

The PLI scheme for Large-Scale Electronics Manufacturing (LSEM) provided incentives of 4–6% on incremental net sales over a base year for approved companies. This, combined with India's cost competitiveness relative to China post-2020 supply-chain restructuring, triggered the structural shift. PLI beneficiaries in electronics must file annual claims on the MeitY portal (https://plisms.meity.gov.in/) with audited turnover certificates — a CA certificate is mandatory for each disbursement claim.

Beyond smartphones, the following sub-categories within electronics showed strong 2023 growth:

• Printed circuit boards (PCBs) and components shipped to Southeast Asian OEMs
• IT hardware (laptops, servers) — the IT Hardware PLI notified in 2023 covers this
• Telecom equipment — Nokia and Ericsson India facilities contributing to export invoices
• Electronic components — resistors, capacitors and passive components to European buyers

For exporters in this sector, a common compliance gap is the interplay between PLI incentive claims and RoDTEP. Both can be claimed on the same shipment — PLI on incremental production value, RoDTEP on FOB export value — but you must ensure the HS codes on your shipping bill match both the RoDTEP rate schedule and your PLI scheme product schedule. A mismatch triggers rejection of the RoDTEP electronic scrip without notice.

Textiles, Apparel and Agri-Marine Products

Textiles and Apparel: India's textile and apparel exports were approximately US$ 35–40 billion in FY 2022-23, with cotton yarn, woven fabrics, knitted garments and home textiles as the dominant sub-segments. Tirupur leads knitwear, Surat leads synthetics, and the Bhilwara-Surat belt leads blended fabrics. Bangladesh and Vietnam remain the two principal competitors — both benefit from lower labour costs and, in Bangladesh's case, zero-duty access to the EU under the Everything But Arms (EBA) arrangement.

India's competitive response under FTP 2023 includes:

• RoDTEP rates for textiles (notified under Chapter 50–63 HS codes) that partly offset the cost disadvantage
• PLI scheme for Man-Made Fibre (MMF) and Technical Textiles — incentivises production of performance fabrics, geo-textiles and medical textiles
• Amended EPCG norms allowing second-hand capital goods (weaving machines) import under EPCG without vintage certification for specified textile machinery categories

Agricultural and Marine Products: The combined agri-marine basket — basmati rice, non-basmati rice (subject to Government of India export policy notifications), shrimp, buffalo meat, spices, tea and sugar — was approximately US$ 50–53 billion in FY 2022-23. APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) regulates and promotes most of this basket. Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) covers shrimp and seafood.

One practical note: agricultural export policy is notified separately and frequently. Non-basmati rice, for example, faced a series of export restrictions in 2023–24 to manage domestic food inflation. If you are advising an agri-exporter, you must check the DGFT notification portal (dgft.gov.in) for active prohibitions, quantitative restrictions or Minimum Export Prices (MEPs) before booking any forward contract.

FTP 2023: What the Framework Actually Does for Each Category

The Foreign Trade Policy 2023 was released on 1 April 2023 with two significant structural changes from its predecessor. First, it eliminated the sunset date — earlier FTPs expired and had to be renewed, creating policy uncertainty. Second, it reoriented incentives away from MEIS-style product-specific cash support (which was WTO-incompatible) toward duty remission (RoDTEP) and duty-free input access.

RoDTEP (Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products)

RoDTEP was designed to remit embedded taxes and levies that are not otherwise refunded — state-level electricity duties, mandi taxes, fuel taxes in the supply chain. It is not a subsidy; it is a remission. Rates are published as a percentage of FOB value for each HS code, notified by the Department of Revenue.

Key operational points:

• Claim is declared at time of Shipping Bill filing in the EDI system at Customs
• The benefit is credited as an electronic scrip (e-scrip) in your ICEGATE account
• E-scrips can be used to pay Basic Customs Duty on your own imports or transferred to third parties via ICEGATE's scrip transfer module
• RoDTEP scrips have a validity of 1 year from the date of credit — unused scrips lapse without refund

Advance Authorisation (AA)

Advance Authorisation allows duty-free import of inputs physically incorporated in the export product (including packing materials). The key compliance requirement is that you import within 12 months of authorisation issue and fulfil export obligation within 18 months of the date of last import (extendable with DGFT permission on payment of composition fee).

At redemption, you must submit the EODC (Export Obligation Discharge Certificate) application through the DGFT portal (dgft.gov.in) along with Bank Realisation Certificates (BRC) or FIRC (Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate) and Bill of Lading copies. Failure to redeem AA and close the bond leads to customs duty demands plus 15% interest per annum from the date of import.

EPCG (Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme)

EPCG allows import of capital goods at 0% Basic Customs Duty, subject to an export obligation of 6× the duty saved, fulfilled in 6 years. For a mid-size engineering exporter, this can be a significant cash-flow benefit.

Post-import compliance under EPCG:

1. File installation certificate with DGFT within 6 months of import
2. File annual statement of export obligation fulfilled (on DGFT portal) by 30 April each year for the previous financial year
3. At the end of the EO period, apply for EODC to close the authorisation
4. Maintain records for 3 years after closure (standard period for CA audit purposes under the Companies Act 2013)

Common Mistakes Exporters Make Under FTP 2023

These are the errors that repeatedly generate demand notices, bond encashment and penalty proceedings:

• Not declaring RoDTEP at Shipping Bill stage. Once the Shipping Bill is filed without the RoDTEP declaration, there is no mechanism to add it retrospectively. The benefit is permanently lost for that shipment.
• HS code mismatch between export documents and PLI product schedule. If your Shipping Bill shows HS 8517.12 (smartphones) but your PLI approval is for HS 8471 (laptops), the PLI claim is rejected. Verify HS codes with a customs consultant before your first PLI claim.
• Advance Authorisation bond not redeemed on time. If you fail to submit the EODC application by the redemption deadline, the bank guarantee (or LUT in lieu) is encashed by customs. Interest at 15% p.a. compounds quickly on large authorisations.
• EPCG installation certificate filed late. Late filing attracts a penalty fee, but more critically, if the capital good is found to be used domestically before export obligation is fulfilled, customs may seek full duty recovery with interest.
• Not registering with the relevant Export Promotion Council (EPC). EEPC, Pharmexcil, GJEPC, APEDA, MPEDA — each administers scheme eligibility for its sector. Without valid EPC membership, you cannot access EPCG or AA for sector-specific notifications.
• Ignoring MEP (Minimum Export Price) notifications for agri exports. Exporting below the notified MEP is an export policy violation that leads to Customs seizure, show-cause notices and suspension of IEC (Importer Exporter Code).

Worked Example: RoDTEP Benefit and EPCG Saving for an Engineering Exporter

Profile: Pune-based auto component manufacturer exporting forged steel connecting rods to a German Tier-1 OEM. FOB value of shipment: Rs. 50,00,000 (Rs. 50 lakh). Simultaneously, the company is importing a CNC turning centre worth Rs. 80,00,000 (Rs. 80 lakh) under EPCG.

Step 1 — RoDTEP benefit on this shipment:

Applicable RoDTEP rate for forged steel auto components (illustrative, as the rate depends on the specific HS code as notified): 1.80% of FOB value

RoDTEP credit = Rs. 50,00,000 × 1.80% = Rs. 90,000

This Rs. 90,000 is credited as an e-scrip to your ICEGATE account within 5–7 working days of EGM (Export General Manifest) filing. You use it to offset BCD on your next import of alloy steel. Net cash saving: Rs. 90,000 per shipment.

Over 12 shipments of similar value in a financial year: Rs. 90,000 × 12 = Rs. 10,80,000 (Rs. 10.8 lakh) annually — a meaningful working capital benefit that many SME exporters forfeit simply by not making the declaration.

Step 2 — EPCG saving on the CNC machine:

Without EPCG: BCD on the CNC machine at the applicable rate (say 7.5%) = Rs. 80,00,000 × 7.5% = Rs. 6,00,000 paid upfront to Customs.

With EPCG at 0% BCD: Duty saved = Rs. 6,00,000.

Export obligation created = 6 × Rs. 6,00,000 = Rs. 36,00,000 (Rs. 36 lakh) in FOB export value, to be fulfilled over 6 years.

Given the company's existing export run rate of Rs. 50 lakh per shipment × 12 shipments = Rs. 6 crore annually, the Rs. 36 lakh EO is fulfilled within approximately 3 months of starting exports — after which the EPCG authorisation can be redeemed early. Effective cost of capital goods: Rs. 74 lakh instead of Rs. 80 lakh, a cash saving of Rs. 6 lakh from a single authorisation.

Important: EPCG and RoDTEP benefits can both be claimed simultaneously on the same export shipment. They are not mutually exclusive, nor does claiming one reduce the other.

Key Takeaways

• Six categories dominate India's merchandise exports: petroleum products, engineering goods, agri-marine products, gems and jewellery, pharmaceuticals and electronics — in aggregate, roughly 75–80% of the US$ 437–447 billion 2023 goods export total.
• Electronics is the fastest-growing category and is expected to become a top-three export segment by FY 2026-27, driven by Apple's India manufacturing scale-up and the PLI scheme.
• FTP 2023 dropped the sunset-date model, giving exporters a stable multi-year planning framework for the first time. RoDTEP, Advance Authorisation and EPCG are the three schemes every goods exporter should have mapped to their product HS codes.
• RoDTEP must be declared at Shipping Bill stage — it cannot be claimed retrospectively. SME exporters routinely miss this, permanently forfeiting the benefit.
• EPCG and RoDTEP are stackable. Claiming both on the same shipment is permitted and straightforward — verify HS code alignment between the two rate schedules.
• Agri exports require real-time policy monitoring. MEPs, export bans and quantitative restrictions on rice, wheat, sugar and onions are notified by DGFT with short lead times. Any forward contract must be conditional on prevailing export policy.
• UA CEPA and Australia ECTA are live preferential tariff agreements. If you export jewellery, textiles, pharmaceuticals or food products and have not filed Form ANF 10A for Certificate of Origin under these agreements, you are surrendering tariff advantages your buyers' competitors may already be exploiting.