The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has appealed to finance minister Yashwant Sinha to allow exporters to subscribe to the Resurgent India Bonds (RIB) from the Export Earners Foreign Currency (EEFC) funds.
According to the FIEO chief Ramu S Deora, "if NRIs, overseas corporate bodies (OCBs) and banks in fiduciary capacity, the exporters should also be allowed to buy the bonds". Deora pointed out that, at present, utlisation of the EEFc account is very low, and if exporters are permitted to buy the RIBs from the funds parked in the EEFC account, it will act as an incentive to them.
Deora said allowing the exporters to invest in the RIBs would help them in investing their foreign currency deposits gainfully. The money in the EEFC account, Deora pointed out, was the exporters hard-earned foreign exchange.
"Unfortunately, this money is not being utilised by exporters to make certain payments to shipping companies, airlines etc and also to pay for export cargo in dollars through dollar cheque books," he said. "Instead exporters were required to make payment to all such agencies in rupees which placed them at a disadvantage because of the fluctuating exchange rate," he said.
Deora noted that the objective of floating the RIB was to attract investments from non-resident Indians by offering a fixed rate of interest to be earned in dollars. "Hence, there is no reason why exporters should be denied an opportunity to buy the bonds offered by the SBI," he said.
