State Bank relaxes export finance scheme

Exporters having 5% overdue proceeds can get financing.

KARACHI:

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced that it has relaxed the Export Finance Scheme (EFS) for the benefit of businessmen whose export proceeds are overdue.

According to a circular issued by SBP on Saturday, an exporter will be eligible to avail financing under EFS Part-I and Part-II, if the total amount of overdue export bills at the time of getting the facility is not more than five per cent of the previous year’s export performance.

In case the overdue export position is greater than five per cent of the previous year’s exports, the exporter will not be entitled to the EFS facility until such time the overdue bill is reduced to the five per cent benchmark level.

SBP asked exporters to give a certificate on a prescribed form, showing consolidated position of overdue export bills, as a percentage of total exports of the preceding year. The certificate will be submitted through a bank to the SBP Banking Services Corporation (BSC) offices on a six monthly basis, by March 31 and September 30 each year.

The certificate will remain valid up to the next six months and the process of submission of the certificate will commence from September this year. However, SBP warned that any misreporting and misstatement will attract fine on the bank or the exporter.





Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2011.