RBI has directed banks to reconcile long-pending mismatches between trade flows and payment records, accumulated over years in EDPMS and IDPMS systems. In October 2024, RBI allowed exporters and importers to close outstanding entries up to ₹10 lakh per shipping bill via self-declaration. Larger unreconciled cases, worth thousands of crores, remain. From October 2025, RBI is decentralising export-import regulation administration to banks, increasing their compliance workload significantly.

EDPMS (Export Data Processing and Monitoring System), launched by RBI in 2014, and its import counterpart IDPMS are digital platforms to monitor forex flows linked to trade transactions. Over the years, mismatches between actual trade and corresponding payment records have piled up due to wrong purpose codes in Foreign Inward Remittance Certificates (FIRCs), unavailable legacy documents, credit notes, and data gaps arising from mergers. These unreconciled entries are not just accounting anomalies — they are live compliance flags. Customs and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) can act on open EDPMS entries, and exporters who remain unreconciled risk being 'caution-listed', restricting their access to trade finance and shipping services.

For the macroeconomy, persistent mismatches distort India's balance of payments data and current account figures. RBI's push to clear this backlog signals a dual intent: improve data authenticity for macro management and reduce regulatory risk for banks ahead of their expanded role from October 2025. The October 2024 self-declaration window for sub-₹10 lakh entries was a targeted relief measure. Experts now suggest an amnesty window — similar to the ODI amnesty of August 2022 — for entries outstanding over 7 years, with late submission fees as a deterrent. This is squarely a FEMA compliance and financial system governance issue with direct implications for forex monitoring.