FIRA (Foreign Inward Remittance Advice) is a vital physical document issued by an Authorized Dealer (AD) bank in India, that acts as a proof of payments received in foreign currency (inward remittance) by you as an Indian exporter (be it a business or freelancer or a sole proprietor).

• FIRA assists regulatory bodies such as the DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade) and the Customs Department in monitoring funds from foreign sources.
• Until 2016, banks provided a physical FIRA on a pre-printed security paper for every foreign inward remittance. However, physical FIRAs were discontinued in 2016 and FIRAs are now exclusively issued for Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and Foreign Institutional Investments (FIIs) only.
• For all other inward remittances, AD1 banks now issue a FIRA or FIRS and, in some cases, a NOC, which provide similar information as FIRA. Collectively, we will refer to this document as a FIRA.

If you're an Indian seller, exporter, or service provider receiving payments from abroad, the proof of foreign currency payment such as FIRA or FIRS is a vital document. It serves multiple crucial purposes.

• Proving receipt of foreign inward remittances against your export business & realization of the outstanding export bills (whenever applicable)
• Claiming any potential tax benefits
• Qualifying for export promotion incentives through various Government schemes

As FIRAs are issued exclusively for payments against FDIs and FIIs since 2016, to cover all other type of inward remittances, AD1 banks issue a similar document on bank’s letterhead, conveying the information of the foreign currency payment. This document is called FIRA (Foreign Inward Remittance Advice) or FIRS (Foreign Inward Remittance Statement). They serve the same purpose as a FIRA, containing the same information as the old physical FIRAs. The key difference is that FIRA/FIRS can be issued on the bank's letterhead and can be provided digitally.

NOC, which stands for No Objection Certificate, contains comparable information to FIRA or FIRS. NOC confirms to the beneficiary bank that the remittance converting bank (intermediary bank) has no objection to the issuance of e-FIRA and e-BRC by beneficiary’s bank.

For convenience, we will refer to this document as FIRA.

This is an electronic certificate for personal and business transfers that come under the export reporting through EDPMS (Export Data Processing and Monitoring System). It is issued by the receiving bank (bank where you hold your bank account) and not by our processing bank partners. Payoneer provided a digital FIRA PDF that helps you get this e-FIRA from your bank.

The FIRA PDF document includes the following details for corresponding foreign inward remittance processed:

• Sender details
• Receiver details
• Amount in foreign currency
• Amount in INR
• Payoneer reference number and Bank UTR number
• Receiver’s bank account number
• Date
• Purpose code (Purpose of payment)
• Disclaimers and references to guidelines by the bank

Yes, if you are a freelancer, service provider, or exporter in individual capacity, and even if your exports are not recorded in EDPMS or SOFTEX, you will still receive the FIRA from us for every transaction. You may, however, need not take any action. The FIRA can be used as proof that your business has received export payments that originated outside India and were brought into India through banking channels approved by RBI.

It is always beneficial to check your Tax Advisor or CA on what you need to do, if you are unsure of your business category and if there are any regulatory implications.

The digital FIRA document would be in the name of the registered user for your Payoneer account. If you represent a company and have registered as a company for your Payoneer account, you will receive the digital FIRA in the registered company’s name. In case of an individual, for example a freelancer, you would receive the digital FIRA under the name with which you registered.

FIRA is required as evidence that you have received funds in foreign currency regardless of the payment amount.

The FIRA is generated and provided regardless of country of origin of funds.

For past FIRAs or missing FIRAs, please reach out to our customer support by phone at:
+91 80712-79452 or +91 80044-04022, or contact us using this form.

Each time you get a payment processed into your bank account through Payoneer, a digital FIRA is generated by Payoneer’s partner bank, and it is made available for you, in your Payoneer account. It will be delivered and available for download within 24 to 72 hours* of receiving a payment. No more manual requests, high fees, or long waiting periods!

*There might be occasional delays due to bank holidays or weekends.

The FIRA is provided free of charge!

When you sign in to your Payoneer account, you can visit the Manage tab, under which, you can find the Digital FIRA in the Reports and statements section.

In addition, we’ll send you a message whenever a new FIRA is available. To see those messages, click on the Notifications icon and in the Notifications list look for the message about receipt of your FIRA. Click the link in the message to go directly to the Digital FIRA page in Manage.

To download your FIRA document:

1. Select the date range to see the FIRA documents you would like to download. You can also search for a specific FIRA by transfer ID.
   Note: If you select a date range of greater than 2 months, you can only download up to 100 digital FIRAs at once. If you have more than 100 digital FIRAs to download, shorten the date range.
2. Select the specific document(s) to download and click Download. You can download all documents for the selected date range by clicking Download all.
3. Your FIRA documents will be downloaded in PDF format (multiple documents will get downloaded in a .zip archive).

Note that when you download your digital FIRAs from the Manage page, you will not need to enter a password to open the document.

Yes, at this time you can still download your digital FIRAs from the messages we send to your account notifications inbox. However, when you download the document from the message, you will still need to provide the unique password we send you in a separate email. Remember, your unique password is permanent, so please store it in a safe location. If at any time you are having issue with your password, reach out to our customer support at +91 80712-79452 or +91 80044-04022 to receive a new email with your unique password.

(When you download your digital FIRAs from Manage > Digital FIRA, you won’t need a password to open the documents).

The purpose code indicates your line of business and why you get paid for. Ensure that you understand and select purpose code commensurate with the line of your business as it gets tagged to every payment you receive. It also gets mentioned on the FIRA pertaining to every transaction.

To change your purpose code:

1. Sign in to Payoneer. to Payoneer.
2. Click Settings > Profile settings > Additional details.
3. Look for the purpose code section. You will see your selected code, and you can make any necessary change by selecting the suitable purpose code from the drop-down list that pops up.
4. For already processed payments and related FIRAs, the purpose code cannot be changed, and you may contact your bank in case of any changes needed.

Payoneer has published a blog on “Decoding FIRA: A Guide for Indian Exporters of Goods & Services”. You may read it here and it will surely help you learn and understand more. In case of any query regarding your FIRA document, you can reach out to our customer support team.

Yes, absolutely. Payoneer can only provide you with a digital FIRA.

Only your bank can report the inward remittance to EDPMS, generate an IRM and thus issue e-FIRA to you. Post trade documentation and FEMA compliance, your AD bank can only provide you with e-BRC after realization of your export bills.

Yes, we issue a digital FIRA for each transaction and if you are into commercial exports, then your bank would need it for EDPMS reporting, IRM and eFIRA creation and export bills realization.

Even if you are not into commercial exports, the FIRA will act as proof of your export business and help for taxation purposes.

When Payoneer’s partner banks process payments through local settlement mechanisms like NEFT, RTGS, and IMPS, the bank sends additional information in the payment message for your bank to identify payments against exports and follow FEMA compliance.

Additionally, the digital FIRA issued clearly provided the details of the foreign currency inward remittance, INR amount converted, sender details, etc. That’s how your bank is able to identify and recognize your export proceeds.

FIRA PDF will be delivered and available for download within 1 to 3 business days* of receiving a payment.

*There might be occasional delays. The above time is on a best effort basis.

If your bank is different from Payoneer’s payment processing partner bank (remittance converting bank), then the action of lodging an inward remittance message (IRM) to EDPMS is still pending and it is to be performed by your AD bank as per FEDAI and RBI guidelines.

• To help them with it, the FIRA provided by Payoneer is sufficient.
• You may need to attach underlying export documents, supporting documents and share the same with your AD Bank for IRM reporting to EDPMS & e-FIRA generation.
• Once your bank is satisfied with the documentary evidence of export proceeds received against your export business, the bank will report IRM to EDPMS, then the e-FIRA can be issued along with e-BRC, wherever applicable.

For any further clarity or disputes, your bank can send an email to our partner bank (email ID is found on the FIRA or to the standard email ID they follow for such queries)

No documentation is needed. We get the FIRA issued digitally by every AD bank that we have partnered with, and it is made available to you in your Payoneer account.

For already issued FIRAs, the purpose code and payer details cannot be changed. You may approach your AD bank to contact our partner bank for any discrepancies. It is advisable that you always have the appropriate purpose code selected in your Payoneer portal so that FIRA contains the same purpose code.

For already issued FIRAs, the purpose code and payer details cannot be changed. You may approach your AD bank to contact our partner bank for any discrepancies. It is advisable that you always have the appropriate purpose code selected in your Payoneer portal so that FIRA contains the same purpose code.

If you are receiving payments for exports registered in SOFTEX or EDPMS, you must download the FIRA from the Payoneer portal, attach additional export documentation, and submit it to your AD bank. This is essential for IRM reporting, e-FIRA generation, and e-BRC issuance, whenever applicable.

• The lodged shipping bills and SOFTEX entries need to be reconciled with the export proceeds through your AD bank, within the given timeframe as per the Master Direction on Exports.

If you are a freelancer, service provider, or exporter whose exports are not recorded in EDPMS or SOFTEX, then you may not need to take any action. The provided PDF document can be used as proof that your business has received export payments that originated outside India and were brought into India following export OPGSP guidelines of RBI.

• It is always beneficial to check your Tax Advisor or CA on what you need to do, if you are unsure of your business category and if there are any regulatory implications.

For the exports that are reported to EDPMS, the AD bank will seek underlying export documentation and monitor export proceeds, to report IRM to EDPMS and generate e-FIRA for the remittance received. The FIRA issued by Payoneer’s AD1 bank would assist your bank in reporting IRM and generating e-FIRA.

• The AD Bank is required to reconcile the lodged export bills against the e-FIRAs and issue a Bank Realization Certificate (BRC) and this is specifically in case of export of goods. AD Banks issue BRC on each export shipment once export proceeds are received and reconciled.
• As an exporter of goods, you may wish to avail financial assistance or duty exemptions available from the government agencies. These agencies need proof of your exports and the BRC acts as that proof helping you avail those exemptions. e-BRC is electronic BRC in simple terms.
• If you are commercial exporter, then please ensure to get BRC/e-BRC from your bank.

NIL. You receive the digital PDF of the FIRA in your Payoneer account, free of charge!