As I indicated in my earlier blog post, we are making changes to comply with Indian regulations for settlements for exports of goods and services. In order to facilitate this process, PayPal will be suspending new withdrawals on March 1, 2010. We expect to resume the service on March 3rd. When you select the ‘Withdraw Funds’ option on your PayPal account after March 3rd, we will ask you to fill out a new field entitled ‘Purpose Code’. This information is required under the laws of India in order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions.
Why are we asking you to do this?
PayPal needs to put in place certain changes to comply with Indian regulations. This means that- Indian PayPal users (Business, Premier and Personal Account Holders) are no longer able to receive personal payments. Your customers now have three options to pay you by
- Using the Pay for Purchases (Goods or Services) tab
- Completing PayPal checkout at your website
- Responding to PayPal “Request Money” instructions (invoices)
- When you instruct PayPal to withdraw your PayPal balance to your bank account in India, you will be required to provide a purpose code for the transaction.
What is a Purpose Code?
The purpose code helps your bank furnish information that may be required by the Reserve Bank of India to identify the nature of the cross border transaction. Details on the different purpose codes are in the table below. Please note that this is different from the Importer Exporter Code (IEC) issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.When is a Purpose Code needed?
When you initiate a withdrawal, you will now be required to declare a purpose code when you are completing the bank withdrawal request.Please note that according to Indian law, based on the value of withdrawal and the purpose code in your declaration, your bank may require you to provide documentary proofs such as invoices / goods receipt forms as applicable to reconcile with your withdrawal.
What do you need to do?
Step 1: If you have initiated a withdrawal prior to March 1st it will be restored to your PayPal balance. The initial amount you receive back in your PayPal balance will be less than the amount you withdrew; all applicable fees and charges will be credited to your PayPal account separately. This credit for fees and charges may take a few days to be reflected in your PayPal account balance, but we expect the full amount of the original withdrawals to be in all of the applicable PayPal accounts by the end of the week. Please bear with us as we complete this process.
Step 2: Once the funds are back in your PayPal balance, or if you have no pending withdrawals as of 1st March, starting on 3rd March you can request a new withdrawal to your local bank account, and you will need to select the Purpose Code relevant to your business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What are the Purpose Codes I need to use?
Please use whichever purpose code below correctly identifies your business.| Code | Category | Description | Who should be using it |
| P0104 | Export of Goods | Value of export bills negotiated / purchased/discounted etc. (covered under GR/PP/SOFTEX/EC copy of shipping bills etc.) | eBay merchants, jewelers, sellers of collectibles and other such products through eBay and your own websites / catalogues globally. Please note: Cross border shipment of goods and services for which you file GR / PP / SOFTEX / EC forms only should be processed with this code. If you have any questions, please check with your bank to help you with the same. |
| P0301 | Travel , Hospitality and Tours | Purchases towards travel (Includes purchases of foreign TCs, currency notes etc over the counter, by hotels, hospitals, Emporiums, Educational institutions etc. as well as amount received by TT/SWIFT transfers or debit to Non-Resident account). | Online Travel Agents, Airlines, Railways, Buses, Taxicab Services, Hotels, B&Bs and other travel / tourism related sales through PayPal |
| P0801 P0802 P0803 | Information Technology | Computer Information Services. Hardware / Software / Data Processing consultancy/implementation | If you are an independent / freelance coder / hardware consultant or data processing service provider, or a small business providing such services for websites globally, please use these codes. For all IT related consulting services where you know you do not need to file a SOFTEX form, please use the appropriate code. 801 for hardware consulting, 802 for software consulting and 803 for data management and processing consulting services |
| P0805 P0806 | Content and Journalism | News Agency and Subscription services | If you are a freelance journalist / blogger / news aggregator please use this purpose code for withdrawals. If you are a newspaper or an online news aggregator for websites overseas, please use the appropriate code from these two. 805 if you a freelance journalist, and 806 if you are a newspaper / aggregator |
| P0902 | Licensing of creative works | Receipts for use, through licensing arrangements, of produced originals or prototypes (such as manuscripts and films) | Artists, designers, other creative service providers where the principal revenue mode is license fees, please use this code. If you produce creative works which you license out for entities overseas, licensing revenues may be classified under this purpose code |
| P1004 | Other services | Legal Services | If you are providing outsourced law related services |
| P1005 | Accounting, auditing, book keeping and tax consulting services | For accounting consulting and accounting services | |
| P1006 | Business and management consultancy and public relations services | Management / brand consulting and management services can be exported with this purpose code | |
| P1007 | Advertising, trade fair, market research and public opinion polling services | Marketing/ brand consulting / logo design / event management services can be exported with this purpose code | |
| P1008 | Research & Development services | If you are an outsourced research and development services provider based in India, receipts can be inwarded through this purpose code | |
| P1009 | Architectural, engineering and other technical services | Any other technical services such as eTutoring, education and other services you render over the internet via web conferencing tools or similar channels, please use this code for your withdrawals |
