Karachi: State Bank of Pakistan SBP has allowed some relaxations in Export Finance Scheme EFS for the benefit of exporters whose export proceeds are overdue.

An exporter shall be eligible to avail financing under EFS Part-I and/or Part-II, if total amount of overdue export bills at the time of availing facility is not more than 5% of previous year's export performance, says SBP circular issued Saturday.

In case overdue export position of an exporter is greater than 5% of previous year's exports, exporter will not be entitled to avail EFS facility till such time that overdue position is reduced to 5% benchmark level, circular said, adding that these instructions, which will come into effect from October 01, 2011, have been issued by SBP to streamline procedure for availing finance under EFS by exporters who have overdue export proceeds.

Each exporter will be required to give a Certificate on a prescribed Form showing consolidated position of overdue export bills outstanding against all bank(s) {as per record of Foreign Exchange Operations Department (FEOD)}, as a percentage of total exports of preceding    year finalized in EE-1 statements. Certificate will be submitted through the bank to concerned SBP BSC office on a six monthly basis by 31st March & September 30, each year, circular said, adding that certificate will remain valid up to next six months. Process of submission of the certificate would commence from September 2011.

SBP has communicated necessary guidelines to banks for processing requests of exporters with overdue export proceeds for availing finance under EFS. Any misreporting/ misstatement shall attract imposition of fine on bank/exporter at the rate prescribed under the Scheme, it added.

Moreover, concerned SBP BSC office(s) shall verify export overdue position of exporter from relevant data and check 5% benchmark. In normal cases this practice shall be adopted twice a year before granting refinance.

The existing waiver for exporters with overdue export bills is being extended up to September 30, 2011 to cover the period until the certificate is submitted by exporters for the first time, circular added.