An exporter shall be eligible to avail financing under EFS Part-I and Part-II, if the total amount of overdue export bills at the time of availing the EFS facility is not more than 5 percent of the previous year's export performance, says a SBP circular issued Saturday.

In case overdue export position of an exporter is greater than 5 percent of the previous year's exports, the exporter will not be entitled to avail the facility till such time that overdue position is reduced to the 5 percent benchmark level, the circular said, adding that these instructions, which will come into effect from 

October 1, 2011, have been issued by the SBP to streamline the procedure for availing finance under EFS by exporters who have overdue export proceeds.

Each exporter will be required to provide a certificate on a prescribed form showing consolidated position of overdue export bills outstanding against all banks as per record of Foreign Exchange Operations Department (FEOD), as a percentage of total exports of the preceding  year finalized in EE-1 statements.

The certificate will be submitted through the bank to the concerned SBP BSC office on a six monthly basis by March 31 and September 30, each year, the circular said, adding that the certificate will remain valid up to the next six months.

The process of submission of the certificate would commence from September 2011.

The SBP has communicated the necessary guidelines to banks for processing the requests of exporters with overdue export proceeds for availing finance under the EFS. Any misreporting or misstatement shall attract imposition of a fine on the bank and exporter at the rate prescribed under the Scheme, it added.

Moreover, the concerned SBP BSC offices shall verify the export overdue position of the exporter from relevant data after checking the 5 percent benchmark level.

In normal cases this practice shall be adopted twice a year before granting refinance.

The existing waiver for exporters with overdue export bills is being extended up to September 30, 2011, to cover the period until the certificate is submitted by exporters for the first time, the circular added.

Copyright PPI (Pakistan Press International), 2011