Export proceeds: SBP gets $58 million repatriated through judicial proceedings

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) got repatriated some $58 million of the pending export proceeds into the country through judicial proceedings during last fiscal year (FY16). The non-receipt of export proceeds for considerably long period of time has been a challenge for SBP-Banking Services Corporation (SBP-BSC), therefore SBP is continuously making efforts to getting the pending export proceeds repatriated into the country.
A special dedicated department, ie, Foreign Exchange Adjudication Department exists in the BSC to adjudicate cases of non-receipts of export proceeds by exporters. This department has the mandate to levy fines and penalties on the exporters, who failed to bring the export proceeds within the timelines given by the department.
According to SBP, during FY16, repatriation of pending export proceeds into the country through judicial proceedings has increased by 17 percent. An amount of $57.7 million was brought back into the country through judicial proceedings in FY16 against the repatriation of $49.4 million in previous year (FY15), showing an increase of $8.3 million. The number of complaints registered, have reduced to 3,718, out of which 2,782 were disposed of, compared to 4,669 complaints received during previous financial year (FY15) of which 2,085 were disposed of.
The ratio of complaints received and disposed of improved significantly from 45 percent in FY15 to 75 percent in FY 16. In addition, with a view to further streamline regulatory instructions, Authorized Dealers had been advised by the SBP to convert export proceeds into Pakistani rupee, where the concerned exporter had failed to do so within prescribed time period of three working days. The AD has been authorized to convert export proceeds into PKR at the 'buying' rate of weighted average exchange rate that prevailed on the third day of receipt of such funds, as available on the SBP website under advice to the concerned exporter.