KARACHI, Jan 14: Exporters’ delaying tactics to remit the export proceeds back home have been causing serious problem for the government, said banking sources on Monday.

Bankers said the current vulnerable exchange rate regime, which put the local currency on persistent depreciating order, had attraction for the exporters as they could earn more with delay of each day.

Complaints against exporters were increasing each year and the State Bank had continuously been running after them and issuing show-cause notices to them. The central bank also held banks responsible for slow remittances of export proceeds.

The State Bank recently published figures regarding the complaints launched against the exporters not remitting proceeds in the stipulated time.

The State Bank noted the number of complaints jumped by over 35 per cent in the last fiscal.

The State Bank said during FY12, as a result of rigorous follow-up and monitoring of export overdue cases, delinquent exporters have been served 18054 show cause notices for speedy realization of overdue export proceeds compared to 10096 notices in the same period last year.

The central bank said during FY12 aggregate cases referred to FEAD (Foreign Exchange Adjudication Department) rose by 35.5 per cent compared to same period last year.

Currency experts believe that the local currency which bounced back last month after reaching close to Rs100 against a US dollar, may not sustain for longer period which encourages the exporters to delay the remittances of export proceeds.

The latest report showed that the six-month exports rose 7.58 per cent to $12.051 billion compared to the same period last year. Bankers said the entire amount is not remitted in stipulated time which weakens the reserve position and weakens the exchange rate.

Despite issuance of thousands of show-cause notices the exporters have been practicing the same delayed tactics for past many years. Bankers said no serious action was taken against the exporters.

The delayed remittances of export proceeds mainly hit the exchange rate, which is the gain for the exporters.

The State Bank said it had undertaken several measures for speedy and timely lodging of complaints against exporters upon their failure to repatriate the export proceeds within stipulated timeframe.