SBP Governor vows to ease hardships caused by delays in opening LCs

TEXT: In pursuance of Prime Minister’s directives, Governor State Bank of Pakistan Jameel Ahmed held a meeting with a delegation of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) which was led by Chairman Businessmen Group Zubair Motiwala and comprised of President KCCI Mohammed Tariq Yousuf, Senior Vice President KCCI Touseef Ahmed, Vice President Mohammad Haris Agar and others.

After detailed discussions, Governor State Bank advised KCCI to share the list of cases of pending payments of 180 days on deferred payment basis where SWIFT messages were already received by the banks in line with the SBP instructions.

He further advised the leadership of Karachi Chamber to share incidents of higher spread between Interbank rates and what was being charged by the banks whereas the State Bank will convene a meeting with the banks to take up the issues highlighted by KCCI for amicable resolution.

In response to concerns expressed over exporters being penalized in case of delays in payment against their cargo, the SBP said that all penalties imposed up to 30th June 2023 have been waived. Moreover, in case any exporter didn’t receive payments against cargo due to any reason including the buyer becoming bankrupt. In such scenario or any other genuine case, the SBP will not take any penal action against the exporter.

He also informed that to facilitate the members of the business community, the State Bank has also introduced Corporate Credit Cards to facilitate corporate transactions. In this regard, KCCI requested SBP to simplify the procedure for obtaining the said corporate credit card. KCCI also requested SBP to issue regular advisories for the business community.

For importers, SBP clarified that advance payment can be sent for import of machinery for which maximum delivery time will be two years whereas in case of importing machinery spare parts, the delivery has to be made within 120 days.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023