The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) is establishing a Central Processing Department (CPD) in Delhi to implement a Faceless Trade Facilitation System (FTFS) for trade-related applications. In an office memorandum dated September 14, 2026, the DGFT assigned officers responsibility for the infrastructure, legal, staffing, technology and budget work needed to make the department functional before the proposed launch on October 2.

The DGFT described faceless trade facilitation as an initiative aimed at enabling “faceless, paperless and jurisdiction-free” processing. It said the system is intended to increase transparency, reduce processing time and improve ease of doing business for exporters and importers.

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The CPD will be physically located at CLA Delhi and will serve as a central unit for processing trade-related applications. Its officers and staff will be drawn from both DGFT headquarters and Regional Authorities. The memorandum does not specify which categories of applications will move to the new system or set out a timetable for transferring them; those operational details remain to be announced.

For the physical setup, Additional DGFT Rakesh Kumar and Joint DGFT Jaipal have been assigned responsibility for establishing the CPD in the CLA building. They will also identify separate premises for CLA Delhi, if required, to keep the two offices’ premises clearly separated.

The legal and training work has been assigned to Additional DGFT Lokesh H. D. and Joint DGFT Satya Raja Sekhar. They must examine legal issues arising from faceless processing and identify any amendments needed to the Foreign Trade Policy and the Handbook of Procedures. They are also responsible for preparing orientation and training material for officers who will be posted to the CPD.

Staffing is another part of the transition. Additional DGFT Abhinav Gupta and Joint DGFT Sanjeev Shrivastava will handle postings of officers and staff to the CPD, along with the resulting staffing changes at other Regional Authorities. Additional DGFT Abhinav Gupta, Joint DGFT Hrushikesh Reddy and Deputy DGFT Ashwani Kumar Ojha have been assigned the technical, software and back-office changes required to implement FTFS.

Additional DGFT Chandra Kant Mishra and Deputy DGFT Saurabh Goyal will handle operations and maintenance and budget-related work, including designing CPD sections along the lines of those at Regional Authorities.

The HRD Division will coordinate the initial setup across these workstreams. Officers’ files and proposals must be routed through the division for approval by the Director General of Foreign Trade. The memorandum asks the responsible officers to take up their assignments on priority, coordinate with other DGFT offices and stakeholder agencies, and submit a daily progress report at 10 a.m.

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