New Delhi [India], Dec 22 : In what can be termed as a major relief to exporters, the State Bank of India (SBI) has decided to withdraw charges levied on the issuance of Bank Realisation Certificate (e-BRC) for the export of shipments.
Banks charge Rs 1000 as e-BRC fee for every shipment exported from the country. SBI decision to withdraw e-BRC charges came after the intervention of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
A source from Commerce and Industry Ministry told that," SBI has informed that e-BRC charge has been reduced to nil for all Export Credit Customer. SBI has further agreed to reverse the charges if wrongly levied by its field formation."
The issue of high banking charges for the issuance of e-BRC was raised by exporters in the meeting chaired by the Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on December 19.
The exporters said that SBI has raised the charge for issuance of the same to Rs 1000. Thereafter, Commerce and Industry Minister instantly took up the matter with SBI asking them to review the charge as such charges raise the transaction cost of exports making them less competitive.
Talking to Dr Ajay Sahai, DG and CEO Federation of Indian Exports Orgsation (FIEO) termed it a big relief for exporters.
"SBI has already done it. Taking lead from SBI now we will request other banks to follow it. There are around 1.5 lakh total active exporters and 25 per cent exporters are a client of SBI, so 40,000 exporters will directly benefit by the decision of SBI," said Sahai.
"This decision has set a trend and we will request other banks to withdraw this charge and reverse the fees paid so far by exporters. e BRC fee was charged by the banks since July 2019. Commerce and Industry Minister has played a very big role for withdrawal of this charge," he added.
Around 40 representatives from the Federation of Indian Export Orgzation (FIEO) and Export Promotion Councils met with Commerce and Industry Minister on December 19 and raised their voice against e-BRC charged by Bank. Following which, Minister Piyush Goyal spoke to SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar and on the very next day, SBI decided to withdraw and reverse the charges collected so far.
e-BRC was charged on every shipment of exporters. On an average if a exporter is exporting 50 shipment in a year then he has to pay Rs 50,000 for his shipments.
FIEO DG Sahai also said that such a timely intervention by Minister will not only exude confidence among exporters that we can approach the Government for immediate redressal but will also motivate the community to focus on long term target of contributing towards US$ 5 trillion economy.
( With inputs from ANI )