Export-oriented and SEZ units
Scheme benefits you can still demonstrate three years later
An export scheme is a bargain: defined benefits in exchange for records that prove you met the conditions. We keep those records continuously, so an assessment is a review rather than an excavation.
Records that corroborate.
Physical movement ⇄ recorded movement, continuously
At a glance
Net foreign exchange position is computed at assessment rather than monitored through the period.
Records that hold up
Net foreign exchange position, monitored periodically.
The economics
Why the numbers are harder here
Units operating under export and SEZ schemes accept an obligation to demonstrate, for any period on request, that physical movement and recorded movement agree and that the scheme's conditions were met. The obligation is continuous; the way it is usually met is not.
The cost of that gap is asymmetric. Maintaining records as you go is routine administrative work. Reconstructing them later produces documents that are internally consistent but externally uncorroborated, which is precisely the position you do not want to be in when someone is asking.
The problem
Where visibility breaks down
- Net foreign exchange position is computed at assessment rather than monitored through the period.
- Bonded and duty-free stock records diverge from physical stock and are adjusted to agree.
- Import and export documentation is filed by whoever handled it, with no central record.
- Scrap, rework, samples and destruction move without being treated as movements.
- Approvals and permissions have validity periods that nobody owns.
Where we concentrate
How we focus the engagement
Records that hold up
- Net foreign exchange monitored on a periodic cycle, not computed at the end.
- Bonded stock reconciled physical-to-recorded on a fixed rhythm, with differences traced to a cause.
- Import, export, job-work and re-import movements documented at both ends.
- Scrap, samples and destruction recorded as movements requiring authorisation.
- Fixed assets tracked by location, so a relocation creates an entry.
Approvals and coordination
- A register of every approval, permission and bond held, with its conditions.
- A named owner and alternate for each, with review points ahead of expiry.
- Periodic returns prepared from the underlying records rather than assembled separately.
- Specialist certification coordinated, with the working papers prepared in advance.
- Conditions attached to each instrument tracked, not only the expiry dates.
Reporting
Reports worth receiving
- Net foreign exchange position, monitored periodically.
- Physical-to-recorded reconciliation, with differences explained.
- Bonded stock position and ageing.
- Register of approvals, with validity and conditions.
- Documentation completeness against movements.
Common questions
Questions we hear in this sector
How often should physical stock be reconciled to records?
Monthly is usually right, and the discipline matters more than the frequency. What matters most is that differences are investigated to a cause rather than adjusted to agreement — an adjustment removes the evidence and leaves the process defect in place.
Who signs the certifications these schemes require?
An independently engaged licensed professional. We prepare the underlying records, the reconciliations and the working papers, and coordinate that engagement. The quality of those records is what decides whether the certification is a review or an investigation.
We are already assessed periodically. Is this not covered?
An assessment tests what you can produce at that moment. It does not build the records, and a unit that assembles them for each assessment carries a risk it has not priced — the reconstruction is only as good as what the operation happened to retain.
5th Quadrant maintains operating records, reconciliations and scheme documentation, and prepares the underlying information for periodic returns. Certifications reserved for a licensed professional are issued by an independently engaged professional, coordinated through 5th Quadrant. Full detail is on our Professional Scope page.
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