How much does TEC MTCTE certification cost in 2026? Administrative fees by group, lab charges and worked totals

There are two bills: TEC's administrative fee and the lab's testing charge.

• TEC's fee. It depends on the product's fee group: Group A Rs 10,000, Group B Rs 20,000, Group C Rs 30,000 and Group D Rs 50,000. Family-based certification is charged at Group D^[1]. Since 1 January 2024, only this administrative fee is charged for applications against essential requirements, under both the general and simplified schemes^[2].
• The lab's charge. Testing is done by TEC-designated Conformity Assessment Bodies, and TEC told them in 2020 to publish their testing charges on their websites^[4]. One large lab lists Rs 85,000 for a router and Rs 55,000 for a tracking device, before taxes^[6]. Those are one lab's published prices, not official fees.

A regular certificate is normally valid for ten years^[1]. For what MTCTE is and which products need it, see TEC MTCTE and the MTCTE product list; the fee rules in full are on MTCTE fees. To total MTCTE with WPC, BIS and EPR for one product, use the compliance cost estimator, and for every regulator's fees in one table see India compliance fees 2026.

TEC's procedure assigns each notified product to a fee group. These are the groups for common products.

• Payment. Fees are paid through Bharat Kosh (NTRP) and are non-refundable, with limited exceptions^[1].
• Testing is separate. Testing charges go straight to the lab, not to TEC^[4].
• Modification and renewal. Modifying a certificate (with or without re-testing), converting a provisional certificate and renewing each cost the administrative fee of the product's group^[7]. Renew at least two months before expiry^[7]; our licence renewal date tool gives the date.
• Contravention cases pay ten times the applicable administrative fee^[1].
• No recertification is needed for an unchanged model or brand, or for labelling-only changes^[3].

Some consultants still publish tables that add a "test report" fee to the administrative fee. One lists Group A as Rs 10,000 + Rs 50,000, Group B as Rs 20,000 + Rs 1,00,000 and Group C as Rs 30,000 + Rs 2,00,000^[8].

That does not match TEC. From 1 January 2024 TEC charges only the administrative fee for applications against essential requirements^[2]. The extra amounts may be old evaluation fees or the consultant's estimate of lab charges. Either way, they are not a current government fee. Ask anyone quoting you to split the bill into TEC fee, lab fee and service fee.

Labs set their own prices. Because TEC requires its designated labs to publish their charges^[4], you can compare them before choosing. The rows below are one lab's published list.

Sometimes.

• BIS safety evidence. For safety parameters, TEC accepts a valid BIS certificate or a safety report from a BIS-recognised lab^[1]. If your product is already under BIS CRS, you may not need to pay for safety testing twice. A BIS-recognised laboratory report counts.
• ILAC-accredited reports. As a time-bound relaxation, reports from ILAC-accredited labs may be accepted, except for parameters that must be tested in Indian labs, and they must be no more than two years old^[1].
• Foreign labs. The 2025 rules allow labs abroad to be recognised in the public interest, but not in a country that shares a land border with India^[3].

Some notified products also need security testing against Indian Telecom Security Assurance Requirements (ITSARs), done at NCCS-designated labs^[3]. One application on the MTCTE portal then leads to an integrated certificate covering both the essential requirement and the ITSAR^[7].

The security evaluation fee was cut sharply in 2025. DoT announced that from 1 August 2025 it is Rs 10,000 for Group A, Rs 20,000 for Group B, Rs 30,000 for Group C and Rs 50,000 for Group D, down from Rs 2,00,000 to Rs 3,50,000^[9]. We could not open the PIB release itself, so treat these as likely. Security lab charges are on top and set by each lab.

Yes, under a DoT scheme, though it is a reimbursement rather than a lower fee. Effective 5 March 2025, start-ups can be reimbursed up to 75%, micro enterprises up to 60% and small enterprises up to 50% of telecom testing and certification charges paid at TEC- or NCCS-designated labs (or NABL labs where no TEC lab exists). It runs for two years or until its Rs 25 crore fund is used up, with applications on TEC's website from 10 March 2025^[5]. On those dates the window closes in March 2027 at the latest, so apply early.

Worked on one lab's router price of Rs 85,000^[6] (our arithmetic, testing charge only): a start-up could recover up to Rs 63,750, a micro enterprise up to Rs 51,000 and a small enterprise up to Rs 42,500. Whether the TEC administrative fee itself also qualifies depends on the scheme terms; we have not assumed it does. Government R&D bodies such as C-DOT and C-DAC are fully exempt from the administrative fee until 31 March 2028^[7].

Lab charges are quoted before tax: one designated lab says its MTCTE testing charges do not include government taxes, which are added^[6]. The TEC administrative fee is paid through Bharat Kosh^[1]; we found no official statement that GST is added to it. If the lab adds GST at 18%, the Rs 85,000 router test becomes Rs 1,00,300 on our arithmetic. Consultant fees, if any, are also quoted plus GST.

These are the medium cases. The small and complex cases follow in the next section. These totals use TEC's fees and one lab's published prices. They exclude taxes on lab charges, consultant fees and BIS.

• Which group is your router? Routers are a Phase-4 product in Group C^[11], but a consumer Wi-Fi router may instead fall under "Wi-Fi access points and CPE", which is Phase-3^[11] and Group B for 2.4/5 GHz equipment^[1]. That changes the TEC fee from Rs 30,000 to Rs 20,000. Check the model on TEC's product finder.
• WPC ETA as well. Wi-Fi access points and CPE need both MTCTE and a WPC ETA^[11]. See WPC ETA cost.
• Trackers and meters. Tracking devices became mandatory on 1 January 2024^[11] and smart electricity meters on 1 October 2024^[11].
• The contravention row assumes the holder certifies within the 180-day window after a stop-sale notice, paying ten times the normal fee^[3]. The authority may also seek seizure or destruction.

• Small: a 2-wire telephone, which is a Group A product^[7]. TEC fee Rs 10,000^[1] plus one lab's published Rs 55,000^[6] comes to Rs 65,000 before tax. If the importer is a micro enterprise, reimbursement of up to 60% of testing charges^[5] could cut the net to about Rs 32,000.
• Complex: a Group C router that is also notified for security testing, from a foreign maker through an Indian AIR. TEC fee Rs 30,000^[1], lab Rs 85,000^[6], security evaluation Rs 30,000 as announced for Group C^[9], WPC ETA Rs 10,000^[10] and RF testing reported at Rs 15,000 to Rs 40,000^[12]: Rs 1,70,000 to Rs 1,95,000 before tax, security lab charges and the AIR's paperwork.

No notified equipment may be sold, deployed or used in India without a valid certificate^[3]. If it is found without one, the holder gets seven days to stop sale and can only resume by certifying within 180 days at ten times the normal fee^[3]; for a Group C router that is Rs 3,00,000 instead of Rs 30,000. Telecom operators must also give users of uncertified equipment seven days' notice and then cut their connection^[3], which turns a compliance gap into customer complaints and returns.

At the port, stock waiting for paperwork runs up storage: one Mundra CFS charges Rs 405 a day per 20-foot container from day four, rising to Rs 2,610 by day 27^[13], before shipping-line demurrage. See why shipments get held at Indian ports. One timing rule helps: for MTCTE the date of import is the date the consignment left the foreign port^[1].

Work through the costs in this order.

A regular certificate is normally valid for ten years; a provisional one for two^[1]. Spread over ten years, the TEC fee for a Group C router is Rs 3,000 a year, and for a Group B product Rs 2,000 a year. The lab charge is usually the bigger part of the bill, and it is paid once unless the product changes. Renewal costs the same as the administrative fee^[1]. Over the same ten years, a micro or start-up importer that claims the testing reimbursement while the scheme is open^[5] pays a much smaller lab share, which makes the annualised cost of a Group B product lower still. The one cost that recurs without warning is a modification: any change that needs a revised certificate costs the group fee again^[7].

TEC runs two schemes. Under the General Certification Scheme, TEC evaluates the test reports and normally issues a certificate in 4-8 weeks. Under the Simplified Certification Scheme, reports are not evaluated by TEC and a certificate is normally issued within fifteen working days^[1]. From 1 January 2024 most notified products, including routers, modems, 2.4/5 GHz equipment, IoT gateways, trackers and smart meters, moved to the simplified scheme^[2]. The fee is the same under both schemes^[2].

Lab time is on top of this. Book the lab early; that is usually the slowest step.

A foreign manufacturer's equipment is certified through an Authorised Indian Representative, which is an Indian company or firm importing its equipment. The representative registers on the MTCTE portal with its registration certificate, an authorisation letter, a notarised affidavit or MoU with the foreign maker, and the maker's authorisation^[14]. So the Indian importer usually pays the TEC fee through Bharat Kosh^[1] and agrees the lab bill with the maker.

The representative is the Authorised Indian Representative on TEC's records. Budget for the representative's paperwork too: notarisation and the affidavit or MoU. These are small next to lab charges, but they take time.

MTCTE is one of several approvals a consumer Wi-Fi router needs. This table shows the official fees over a certificate's normal ten-year life^[1], using the Group B classification for 2.4/5 GHz equipment^[1]. Lab charges are excluded.

• Over ten years the table comes to Rs 20,000 + Rs 10,000 + 10 x Rs 5,000 + Rs 500 = Rs 80,500 in official fees, before GST. The e-waste annual charge applies to the importer's registration as a whole, not to each model.
• Routers are listed in Schedule I of the e-waste rules under code ITEW22^[18].
• Our research reads Wi-Fi routers as needing MTCTE^[19] and a WPC ETA^[20]. Whether BIS CRS also applies depends on the model; see the Wi-Fi routers page. The other costs in this table are explained on EPR registration cost, LMPC registration cost and the cost of importing electronics.

• Compare published lab prices. Designated labs must display them^[4].
• Reuse BIS safety evidence where TEC accepts it^[1].
• Use ILAC reports within the relaxation and the two-year age limit^[1].
• Avoid needless recertification. Unchanged models and label-only changes do not need it^[3].
• Claim the MSME reimbursement before the scheme closes^[5].
• Choose the right group. A misclassified product can cost an extra Rs 10,000 in fees, or a rejected application. Essential requirements decide the group.
• Never sell before certification. The tenfold fee in contravention cases^[1] wipes out any saving.
• Import samples under the exemption for testing and R&D^[3].

For help choosing between filing yourself and using an agent, see our WPC and telecom consultants directory, read WPC ETA vs MTCTE, or ask for a free compliance check.