EEPC India seeks dollar conversion at real effective rate

EEPC India, the apex engineering exporters' organisation, has sought the intervention of the Reserve Bank of India and the Ministry of Commerce to allow conversion of their dollar earnings at real effective rate.
"Our members have requested that the Indian exporters should be allowed to convert their dollars into rupees based on the real effective exchange rate (REER) since the rupee is over-valued in terms of nominal effective exchange rate (NEER), as per the RBI indices," EEPC India Executive Director and Secretary Bhaskar Sarkar said in a letter to Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia and RBI Governor Dr Urjit Patel.
EEPC said it has received representations from the member exporters, stating that they are badly affected by the sharp appreciation of the rupee.

According to the apex body, the rupee has appreciated by around six per cent in the past four months.
"This is making it extremely difficult to be competitive at a time when some of our major competing countries are depreciating against dollar," EEPC has said.
"The exporters have been badly affected by other measures such as the RBI's caution listing, non-acceptance by banks of payments from OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) countries, increasing steel prices, amongst others," it said.
EEPC said, under the RBI's latest norms, exporters would be caution-listed if their shipping bills remain open for over two years from the shipment date in the Export Data Processing and Monitoring System.

"All these in combination with the rupee appreciation is making it very difficult for the small-scale sector, which has value addition in the low to medium range, in particular, to sustain their exports," Sarkar said.