FSSAI Return Filing in Coimbatore

What is FSSAI return filing?

An FSSAI return is a periodic disclosure of the food products a licensed business handled during the period — product-wise quantities manufactured, imported, sold, and held in stock, along with the raw material used. FSSAI uses the data to understand production patterns in the food industry and to target surveillance and enforcement.

It is a separate obligation from the licence itself. Holding a valid FSSAI licence does not discharge the return, and filing returns does not keep a licence in good standing — the annual fee does that, as covered in FSSAI renewal.

Filing is online through FoSCoS only. FSSAI made electronic filing mandatory from the 2020-21 financial year onwards, so a physical or emailed return is not a valid submission.

Who has to file FSSAI returns?

The annual return is required from manufacturers and importers. FSSAI’s advisory describes the eligible set as manufacturers — including repackers and relabellers — importers, and manufacturer-exporters. Businesses that only trade, distribute, or serve food are generally outside it.

• Food manufacturers holding a state or central licence
• Repackers and relabellers, who are treated as manufacturers for this purpose
• Importers of food products, including those operating through ICEGATE
• Manufacturer-exporters of food products
• Manufacturers and importers of milk and milk products, who file the half-yearly return in addition
• Own-brand and private-label owners who get products manufactured on a contract basis, where the licence category treats them as manufacturers

Applicability follows the licence category recorded on FoSCoS rather than how you describe the business. If the category shows manufacturing, the return is expected even if the plant was idle for the year — a nil return is still a return.

Which FSSAI return applies to which business?

A dairy business that both manufactures milk products and makes other food products may find both forms applicable — D2 for the milk products and D1 for the rest. The two are not alternatives to each other.

Some state authorities and certain export-linked categories have historically asked for additional periodic statements. Where your licence or a state circular imposes something beyond D1 and D2, that requirement stands on its own, so confirm the position for your state and category.

What is Form D1, the annual return?

Form D1 is the annual quantity return. It is filed for the previous financial year by 31 May, and it reports the food products handled over that year at product level rather than in aggregate.

• Licence number, licensing authority, and the period covered
• Product-wise name and category of every food item manufactured or handled
• Quantity manufactured during the year, with the unit of measure
• Quantity sold in the domestic market, with value where the form asks for it
• Quantity exported, and the destination countries where applicable
• Quantity imported, where the business is an importer
• Opening and closing stock for each product
• Raw material and packaging material consumed
• Details of any product recalled or rejected during the year

The unit of measure is where most correction requests come from. Mixing kilograms and metric tonnes across products, or reporting in cases rather than weight, produces figures that do not reconcile against the previous year and invites a query.

What is Form D2, the half-yearly return?

Form D2 applies to manufacturers and importers of milk and milk products. Instead of one annual filing, they report twice — once for the half-year from April to September and once for October to March — within the prescribed period after each half-year closes, which is commonly one month.

The content is dairy-specific. It covers milk procured, the fat and solids-not-fat position, quantities of each milk product manufactured, sales, and stock. Because it tracks procurement as well as output, it needs the dairy’s collection records rather than only its despatch records.

The exact due dates quoted for D2 differ between sources, and FSSAI has adjusted the reporting calendar in the past. We confirm the current dates on FoSCoS for the relevant half-year before filing rather than working from a remembered date.

How do you file an FSSAI return on FoSCoS?

1. 1.Assemble product-wise production, sales, export, import, and stock data for the period
2. 2.Reconcile those quantities to your stock records, GST returns, and shipping documents
3. 3.Log in to FoSCoS with the credentials registered against the licence
4. 4.Open the returns section from the dashboard and select the applicable form
5. 5.Select the financial year or half-year being reported
6. 6.Enter product details, quantities, units, and raw material consumption
7. 7.Enter opening and closing stock so that the movement reconciles
8. 8.Review every entry — errors are far more expensive to fix after submission than before
9. 9.Submit and download the acknowledgement generated by the portal
10. 10.File the acknowledgement with the licence records at the premises
11. 11.Repeat separately for each licence number if you operate more than one unit

Returns are filed per licence, not per company. A manufacturer with three licensed plants files three returns, each reconciling to that plant’s records. FSSAI has also made Food Safety Mitra assistance available for return filing at a fixed nominal charge, which is worth knowing about for a single small unit.

What is the due date and the late fee for FSSAI returns?

The annual return is due by 31 May. Beyond that date, FSSAI’s advisory prescribes a penalty of ₹100 per day with effect from 1 June, subject to a maximum of five times the annual licence fee. FSSAI has stated plainly that no request for waiver of the penalty for delay or non-submission will be considered.

The daily rate and the multiple used for the cap are set by FSSAI order and have been revised before — the cap at five times the annual licence fee was itself introduced by a later order. Treat the numbers above as the position stated in the current advisory and confirm them at the time of filing.

Can an FSSAI return be revised?

Yes, and the rules for it are more structured than most people expect. FSSAI opened up post-deadline revision specifically so that inadvertent mistakes could be corrected, but it attached conditions and a fee.

• A return revised up to 31 May carries no revision fee
• An operator who filed by 31 May may revise a limited number of times after that date, with the prescribed revision fee, and the last submitted return is treated as final
• An operator who filed late with the late fee is generally allowed a single revision, up to 31 March of the following year
• The revision fee for a late filer has been prescribed as a multiple of the licence fee plus GST
• Revision does not undo the original late fee — the two are separate charges

The practical lesson is to get the figures right before 31 May rather than to rely on the revision window. A revision on a late return is the most expensive way to correct a unit of measure.

What happens if the FSSAI return is not filed at all?

Non-filing is recorded as non-compliance against the licence. In practice it surfaces as an improvement notice under the Food Safety and Standards Act, as a negative entry in the compliance history that now feeds the risk-based inspection framework, and as an obstacle whenever you need the licensing authority to act on something else.

1. 1.The daily late fee continues to accrue until the return is filed, up to the cap
2. 2.Authorities have historically required pending returns to be cleared before processing other licence applications
3. 3.Repeated non-compliance can lead to suspension or cancellation proceedings
4. 4.Furnishing false information in a return is a separate and more serious matter, exposing the operator to prosecution under the Act
5. 5.A poor compliance record raises inspection frequency under the risk-based framework

Because the penalty is capped at a multiple of the annual licence fee, a long-standing default does not grow without limit — but the non-financial consequences keep compounding, and they are the ones that stop a business.

What changes are proposed to FSSAI return penalties?

FSSAI published draft amendments to the Licensing and Registration Regulations in January 2026, open for objections and suggestions for sixty days, which would replace the flat daily late fee for the annual return with graded penalties and an automatic suspension.

The same draft proposes to limit daily production and raw material record-keeping to manufacturing businesses, excluding non-manufacturers, and to mandate FIFO or FEFO stock rotation across the supply chain while exempting retailers. It also refers to the filing as a Food Safety Compliance Return.

These are draft proposals. Until they are notified in the Official Gazette, the existing ₹100-per-day framework with the five-times cap continues to apply. We track the notification and will tell you if a pending filing is affected.

How do returns interact with the new perpetual licence validity?

The 2026 reform that removed periodic licence renewal did not touch return filing. If anything it raised the stakes, because the renewal application used to be the moment when pending returns were caught — authorities commonly required them to be cleared before renewal was processed.

With no renewal to force that reconciliation, returns need their own calendar entry. The draft amendment above points in the same direction: it would make non-filing of the return itself a trigger for deemed suspension, which is the mechanism the reform already uses for non-payment of the annual fee.

Practically, a food business now needs two standing reminders where it used to keep one — the annual fee on FoSCoS, and the return by 31 May.

What records make FSSAI return filing straightforward?

• Product-wise production register maintained through the year, in a single unit of measure
• Raw material and packaging material consumption records
• Opening and closing stock statements that tie to the production register
• Sales register reconciled to GST returns at product level
• Export documentation — shipping bills and invoices — for the quantities exported
• Import documentation and bills of entry, for importers
• Recall and rejection records for the year
• Previous year’s filed return and acknowledgement, for continuity of figures
• Laboratory test reports supporting product compliance — see food testing

Businesses that maintain these through the year file in an afternoon. Businesses that reconstruct them in late May spend a week on it and still end up revising. Regular bookkeeping with product-level stock tracking is what makes the difference.

What does FSSAI return filing cost and how long does it take?

Time is driven almost entirely by data readiness rather than by the portal. With clean product-wise records the submission itself is a short exercise; without them, the reconciliation is the project and the filing is the last step.

What are the common mistakes in FSSAI return filing?

• Assuming a restaurant or trading licence needs a return, or that a manufacturing licence does not
• Skipping the return for a year in which the plant did not produce, instead of filing nil
• Mixing units of measure across products so the totals do not reconcile
• Reporting sales value from the accounts instead of the quantities the form asks for
• Filing one consolidated return for a company that holds several licences
• Leaving out exports or imports because they were captured in other filings
• Closing stock that does not tie to the opening stock of the following year
• Missing the half-yearly D2 obligation because the annual D1 was filed
• Relying on the revision window rather than checking figures before 31 May
• Treating the late fee as negotiable — FSSAI has said waiver requests are not considered

Why choose Arjun Filings for FSSAI return filing?

Arjun Filings runs FSSAI return filing as a checklist-first engagement: a qualified CA or CS scopes the work, tells you exactly which documents are needed, and reviews every form before it is signed and submitted. You get a named specialist, a status update at each stage, and a compliance calendar for whatever comes next.

• Reliable desk for FSSAI return filing
• Input checklist each cycle
• Deadline tracking
• Human + AI support when questions arise