Concern over unrealised export proceeds

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, AUG. 13. The Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Mr. Vepa Kamesam, today said the central bank was concerned over the huge amount of unrealised export proceeds. As on December 31, 2000, (the date up to which official figures are available) unrealised proceeds amounted to a staggering Rs. 14,159 crores.

Addressing a seminar on export credit organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) here today, Mr. Kamesam urged exporters to bring in proceeds that were overdue. He said efforts of the RBI and the government towards export promotion failed to meet their objective as long as exporters did not realise and repatriate export proceeds.

He said the RBI had recently allowed a ``write off'' facility to the status holder exporters. Under this scheme, exporter and exporting more than 50 per cent of their production were permitted to write off their export outstanding up to 5 per cent of their average export earnings of the preceding three calendar years.Units in the special economic zones would be allowed 12 months to realise export proceeds. Mr. Kamesam said the RBI would extend all possible support for the promotion of exports.

He agreed, that the cost of credit, its availability and high transaction cost continued to be a grey area for exporters. In this connection, he said the NCAER had been asked to conduct a survey on the high transaction cost. Mr. Kamesam said the cost of credit finance for exporters was likely to come down following recent cut in PLR by some banks.

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Section  : Business
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