Mumbai, Sept 26: Reserve Bank of India has said that a resident in India being a project/service exporter may open, hold and maintain foreign currency account with a bank outside or in India. RBI in a notification issued here today said accordingly, the approving authority of the overseas contract may approve the proposal of exporter, to open, hold and maintain foreign currency account in India subject to the term and conditions.
The exporter would be required to have a separate account for each project under execution abroad and authorised dealers shall not avail of rupee loans against security of balances held in such accounts and no overdraft would be permitted. The balance in the account would be subject to statutory liquidity and cash reserve ratio requirement as prescribed by RBI from time to time, it added.
Presently, project/service exporters were required to obtain specific approval of the apex bank for making payment to their Indian suppliers of goods/services in foreign currency in India out of foreign currency accounts opened or maintained in India for execution of projects abroad. It has been decided that project approving authority may on request allow such project/service exporters to pay their Indian suppliers/service providers in foreign currency from such accounts subject to certain conditions.
The project or service exporter should not claim export benefits on the payment and Indian supplier of goods should comply with export procedure as per provisions or requirements of FEMA 1999, it added. Bureau Report