STRIPE, THE WORLD’S LEADING INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS PORTAL, STILL KEEPS LAKSHMI WAITING AT THE SMALL EARNER’S DOOR ON DIWALI EVE

THE RBI HAS EASED THE RULES FOR SMALL INWARD REMITTANCES; STRIPE HAS NOT CAUGHT UP, REPORTS KBS SIDHU, FORMER SPECIAL CHIEF SECRETARY, GOVERNMENT OF PUNJAB, AND FOUNDER-EDITOR, THE KBS CHRONICLE

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A month after the RBI Governor publicly said that individuals earning from services abroad need not file the new export declaration, and five days after the RBI wrote that relief into its regulations, Stripe, the leading international payments portal, is still demanding PAN, Aadhaar, an income-tax return and an Importer-Exporter Code or GST number from small earners in India, KBS Sidhu reports.

The trail begins with the Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and  Services) Regulations, 2026 (Notification No. FEMA 23(R)/2026-RB), notified on 13 January 2026 and in force from1 October 2026. They require every service exporter to file an Export Declaration Form within 30 days after the end of the month in which the invoice is raised. For a pensioner with a small newsletter, or a young writer or software freelancer at a modest desk, that was a form built for companies.

Relief came in two steps. On 7 October 2026 the RBI Governor and a Deputy Governor said in public that individuals providing personal services abroad need not report. The Second Amendment Regulations (Notification No. FEMA 23(R)/(2)/2026-RB), dated 2 November 2026 and effective from 1 October, then made it law. A resident individual is treated as having filed the declaration once the payment details reach the authorised dealer bank, and other exporters get the same facility for inward remittances up to ₹10 lakh.

What has reached the platform, KBS Sidhu says, appears to be the first, stricter version. His own Stripe account has been asked for his PAN and Aadhaar, both already uploaded, and now for his income-tax return, which carries his date of birth even though the file is password-protected. The alternative offered is an IEC or a GST number. He has neither and needs neither. His annual revenue is under ₹50,000, and most of his paid readers are in India, so these are largely domestic rupee payments. With the account tied to his mobile number, he asks how safe it is to hand such a bundle to any portal.