Electronic bank realisation certificates for exporters mooted

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry would initiate talks with Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Indian Banks Association and the top management of nationalised banks to implement the electronic disbursement of Bank Realisation Certificate (BRC) for exporters to speed up the duty reimbursement procedures with the ministry, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters after addressing a meeting with the exporters jointly organised by Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), Southern Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) and Tirupur Exporters Association, he said exporters were facing issues in claiming duty reimbursements since BRCs were not issued by banks on time.

If the BRCs are issued electronically, the digital proceedings would reduce the paper work and the certificates would be available for exporters to make claims for reimbursement schemes on time. This would make the process time bound, he said. The ministry was in the process of implementing e-governance wherever possible in its departments to reduce paper work, he added.

BRC, which documents the realisation rate at which foreign currency is converted into the Indian rupee, is mandatory for applying for duty reimbursement schemes like the Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) scheme and the duty drawback scheme. At present, it takes months for exporters to attain the certificate prior to approaching the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

India’s first manufacturing policy is expected to be taken up for final clearance in a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister on June 9. This would be a step towards increasing the importance of manufacturing processes and facilities in the country, said Sharma.

“Manufacturing share has grown only to 16-17 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at present. This has to be changed. We have to take this to 25 per cent by 2025,” he said. The new policy would bring in technology and encourage innovation in the manufacturing segment. The government had completed inter-ministerial communication and discussions with the stakeholders to reach a consensus, he added.

The industry would extend all its support to the government to achieve the target of $500 billion in exports by 2013-14, said Ramu S Deora, president, FIEO. He said the uncertainty over deciding on the continuation of the DEPB scheme or the implementation of an alternative scheme would affect export performance in the second half of the current financial year, unless the government considered extension of the scheme.