From 1 November, Indian Fabric Shipping Bills Must Say Whether the Cloth Is Flame Retardant

What changes on 1 November

India's customs board issued Circular 42/2026-Customs on 24 September 2026. From 1 November 2026, an Indian exporter filing a shipping bill for any tariff item listed in the circular's annexure must add a qualifier saying whether the fabric is flame retardant or not. Trade summaries of the annexure give the two codes as FR001 for flame retardant fabric and FR009 for fabric that is not.

The listed lines are woven and knitted fabrics in Chapters 52 (cotton), 55 (man-made staple fiber, which is where polyester blended with viscose sits) and 60 (knitted). So most poly-viscose suiting and shirting leaving India from today carries the new field.

We have read the circular as reproduced in the tax press, because the customs board's own site cannot be opened without a browser session. The circular number, date and effective date are taken from that text.

Why it exists

The circular says it plainly. Fabrics used to make flame retardant products are classified under the same tariff items as ordinary fabric, so customs cannot tell them apart from the classification alone. That makes it hard to identify flame retardant cloth for the textiles Production Linked Incentive scheme, which reopens for applications on 1 November in round 4.

It is a data field, not a tax. No duty, cess or licence attaches to either code.

What it means if you buy fabric from India

• Nothing changes at your own border. Your import duty, origin rules and paperwork stay as they were. The qualifier sits on the Indian exporter's declaration.
• Expect no price or lead-time effect. Filing one extra field takes minutes. If a supplier cites this rule as a reason for a delay or a surcharge, ask what exactly changed.
• If you buy certified flame retardant cloth, check the declaration matches. The shipping bill for your lot should say FR001. A lot sold to you as flame retardant but declared FR009 is a mismatch to raise before the goods sail, alongside the test report.
• If you buy ordinary uniform, suiting or shirting cloth, the declaration should say FR009. That is a declaration about the cloth, not a downgrade.
• Our guide to importing uniform fabric from India covers the rest of the export paperwork. We do not supply flame retardant cloth, so our own declarations for these lines read FR009.

What we will watch

Whether the first weeks of filing cause any queries at Indian ports, and whether the customs board publishes the annexure on a page that can be opened publicly. We will update this post if either happens.