Budget 2026 Boosts Marine Exports: Duty-Free Fish Catch in EEZ and High Seas [Read Finance Bill 2026]

Among many announcements made during the Union Budget 2026 presentation, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced an innovative policy to expand the potential size of India's marine and maritime fish exports by exempting fish caught by Indian-registered commercial vessels in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and on the High Seas.

Under the new provisions outlined in the Budget speech, Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman emphasized that it is part of an overall effort to enhance export-oriented sectors and reduce complexity in the customs process. The new provisions will create opportunities for Indian commercial fishing companies to access more lucrative global markets without the burden of customs duties.

With this new measure, fish caught by Indian commercial fishing companies operating within 200 nautical miles of India's coastline - EEZ or on the High Seas will no longer incur basic customs duties when landed at a foreign port. With this, the government has established that these landed fish will be considered exports of goods under Indian customs laws.

Policy Elements

Prior to the 2026 Budget, exemptions from customs duty were limited to seafood produced in India’s EEZ and to exported processed seafood products. The new budget extends this exemption to fish caught by Indian fishing vessels in the EEZ as well as fish caught in International Waters, beyond the 200 nautical mile border of India’s EEZ.

Furthermore, by treating fish landed at foreign ports as an extension of the country they were landed at, Indian exporters will be able to take advantage of customs duty-free access through their exports. Safeguards will be put in place to protect exporters, in order to guard against potential abuse of the customs duty exemption and the misclassification of exports.

Reason for the change

The government aimed for this change to expand the availability of marine products on the global market. Marine Products are among India’s largest categories of exports and have been a major contributor to foreign exchange earnings. Although Budget 2026 does not incorporate extensive economic modelling or specific export projections for this change, the move has been viewed positively by industry segments as a message to the international seafood market that India is serious about expanding its participation in the global seafood value chain.

Expected Impact of the Marine Exports on the Indian Economy

There are currently no official export volume estimations associated one to one with this new measure, but it is clear that seafood exports have been one of the fastest growing agricultural export sectors of the Indian economy in recent years. In F.Y. 2024-25 India’s seafood exports made up more than ₹60,000 crore, of which approximately 70% were attributable to the export of frozen shrimp.

Establishing a duty rate of zero for the distant catches from foreign oceans may drive down the effective cost of exported marine products by Indian companies and, at the same time, encourage fishing fleets to target high-value marine species that are found in the oceans outside India, which traditionally have been less economical to catch and market.

In addition, treating the foreign landings at and from the false as export shipments will reduce the amount of paper work and customs compliance of exporters operating cross border fishing operations. Subsequent establishment and implementation of measures to minimize the potential for using the 0% duty, which were stated to be “at the time of catch, at the time of transportation and at the time of transshipment.”.

Safeguards

The Minister of Finance did not provide any further detail regarding how the safeguards are to be structured, however it is reasonable to expect that the customs authority and the exporters’ controls will follow procedures and conduct inspections, including vessel movements, catch documentation and chain-of-custody, to ensure that only legitimate marine products caught by Indian boats qualify for the 0% duty rate. The success of the establishment and implementation of the safeguards will be critical.

Broader Budget Export Strategy

The duty-free fish catching provision in Budget 2026 represents an integral element of broader export strategy focussed on measures aimed at exporting products to overseas markets. This includes removing the ₹10 lakh threshold on all courier exports, which is expected to support small and medium-sized businesses, artisans and start-ups by giving them the same opportunity to export as more established businesses without the limiting factor of export values.

This reform is part of a range of reforms being introduced in the Budget, which will aim to provide improved export facilitation and ease of doing business for exporters across all sectors through improvements to the customs and other export-related facilities that will enable more manufacturers to export seafood products without the burden of higher tariff or customs duties imposed on seafood processing and other related manufacturers.

With the continued growth of demand for seafood through the current renewed level of demand for seafood on a global scale, coupled with India being one of the largest exporters of seafood in the world, the new duty-free status of exports from India will likely drive increased growth in seafood exports, provided there are sufficient complementary infrastructure and market access strategies to bring the fishers and exporters together.

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