Pre Shipment Finance is issued by a financial institution when the seller
want the payment of the goods before shipment.
The main objectives behind preshipment finance or pre export finance is to
enable exporter to:
- Procure raw materials.
- Carry out manufacturing process.
- Provide a secure warehouse for goods and raw materials.
- Process and pack the goods.
- Ship the goods to the buyers.
- Meet other financial cost of the business.
- Packing Credit
- Advance against Cheques/Draft etc. representing Advance Payments.
Preshipment finance is extended in the following forms :
- Packing Credit in Indian Rupee
- Packing Credit in Foreign Currency (PCFC)
This facility is provided to an exporter who satisfies the
following criteria
- A ten digit importerexporter code number allotted
by DGFT.
- Exporter should not be in the caution list of RBI.
- If the goods to be exported are not under
OGL (Open General Licence), the exporter should have the
required license /quota permit to export the goods.
Packing credit facility can be provided to an exporter on
production of the following evidences to the bank:
- Formal application for release the packing credit with undertaking to
the effect that the exporter would be ship the goods within
stipulated due date and submit the relevant shipping
documents to the banks within prescribed time limit.
- Firm order or irrevocable L/C or original cable / fax / telex message
exchange between the exporter and the buyer.
- Licence issued by DGFT if the goods to be exported fall
under the restricted or canalized category. If the item falls
under quota system, proper quota allotment proof needs to be
submitted.
The confirmed order received from the overseas buyer
should reveal the information about the full name and
address of the overseas buyer, description quantity and value of
goods (FOB or CIF), destination port and the last date of payment.
Pre shipment credit is only issued to that exporter who has the export order
in his own name. However, as an exception, financial institution can also grant
credit to a third party manufacturer or supplier of goods who does not have
export orders in their own name.
In this case some of the responsibilities of meeting the export requirements
have been out sourced to them by the main exporter. In other cases where the
export order is divided between two more than two exporters, pre shipment credit
can be shared between them
The Quantum of Finance is granted to an exporter against
the LC or an expected order. The only
guideline principle is the concept of NeedBased Finance. Banks
determine the percentage of margin, depending on factors such as:
- The nature of Order.
- The nature of the commodity.
- The capability of exporter to bring in the requisite contribution.
1. Before making any an allowance for Credit facilities banks need to check
the different aspects like product profile, political and economic details about
country. Apart from these things, the bank also looks in to the status report of
the prospective buyer, with whom the exporter proposes to do the business. To
check all these information, banks can seek the help of institution like ECGC or
International consulting agencies like Dun and Brad street etc.
The Bank extended the packing credit facilities after ensuring the
following"
- The exporter is a regular customer, a bona
fide exporter and has a goods standing in the market.
- Whether the exporter has the necessary license and quota
permit (as mentioned earlier) or not.
- Whether the country with which the exporter wants
to deal is under the list of Restricted Cover Countries(RCC) or not.
2. Once the proper sanctioning of the documents is done, bank ensures whether
exporter has executed the list of documents mentioned earlier or not.
Disbursement is normally allowed when all the documents are properly executed.
Sometimes an exporter is not able to produce the export order at time of
availing packing credit. So, in these cases, the bank provide a special packing
credit facility and is known as Running Account Packing.
Before disbursing the bank specifically check for the following
particulars in the submitted documents"
- Name of buyer
- Commodity to be exported
- Quantity
- Value (either CIF or FOB)
- Last date of shipment / negotiation.
- Any other terms to be complied with
The quantum of finance is fixed depending on the FOB value of contract /LC or
the domestic values of goods, whichever is found to be lower. Normally insurance
and freight charged are considered at a later stage, when the goods are ready to
be shipped.
In this case disbursals are made only in stages and if possible not in cash. The
payments are made directly to the supplier by drafts/bankers/cheques.
The bank decides the duration of packing credit depending upon the time required
by the exporter for processing of goods.
The maximum duration of packing credit period is 180 days, however bank may
provide a further 90 days extension on its own discretion, without referring to
RBI.
3. Exporter needs to submit stock statement giving all the necessary
information about the stocks. It is then used by the banks as a guarantee for
securing the packing credit in advance. Bank also decides the rate of submission
of this stocks.
Apart from this, authorized dealers (banks) also physically inspect the stock
at regular intervals.
4. Packing Credit Advance
needs be liquidated out of as the export proceeds of the
relevant shipment, thereby converting preshipment credit into postshipment credit.
This liquidation can also be done by the payment receivable from the Government
of India and includes the duty drawback, payment from the Market Development
Fund (MDF) of the Central Government or from any other relevant source.
In case if the export does not take place then the entire advance can
also be recovered at a certain interest rate. RBI has allowed some flexibility
in to this regulation under which substitution of commodity or buyer can be
allowed by a bank without any reference to RBI. Hence in effect the packing
credit advance may be repaid by proceeds from export of the same or another
commodity to the same or another buyer.
However, bank need to ensure that the substitution is commercially necessary and
unavoidable.
5. Bank considers a packing credit as an overdue, if the borrower fails to
liquidate the packing credit on the due date. And, if the condition persists
then the bank takes the necessary step to recover its dues as per normal
recovery procedure.
1. Packing Credit can only be shared on the basis of disclaimer between the
Export Order Holder (EOH) and the manufacturer of the goods. This disclaimer is
normally issued by the EOH in order to indicate that he is not availing any
credit facility against the portion of the order transferred in the name of the
manufacturer.
This disclaimer is also signed by the bankers of EOH after which they have an
option to open an inland L/C specifying the goods to be supplied to the EOH as a
part of the export transaction. On basis of such an L/C, the subsupplier bank
may grant a packing credit to the subsupplier to manufacture the components
required for exports.
On supply of goods, the L/C opening bank will pay to the sub supplier's bank
against the inland documents received on the basis of the inland L/C opened by
them.
The final responsibility of EOH is to export the goods as per guidelines. Any
delay in export order can bring EOH to penal provisions that can be issued
anytime.
The main objective of this method is to cover only the first stage of production
cycles, and is not to be extended to cover supplies of raw material etc. Running
account facility is not granted to subsuppliers.
In case the EOH is a trading house, the facility is available commencing from
the manufacturer to whom the order has been passed by the trading house.
Banks however, ensure that there is no double financing and the total period of
packing credit does not exceed the actual cycle of production of the commodity.
2. It is a special facility under which a bank has right to grant
preshipment advance for export to the exporter of any origin. Sometimes banks
also extent these facilities depending upon the good track record of the
exporter.
In return the exporter needs to produce the letter of credit / firms export
order within a given period of time.
3. Authorised dealers are permitted to extend Preshipment Credit in Foreign
Currency (PCFC) with an objective of making the credit available to the
exporters at internationally competitive price.
This is considered as an added advantage under which credit is provided in
foreign currency in order to facilitate the purchase of raw material after
fulfilling the basic export orders.
The rate of interest on PCFC is linked to London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).
According to guidelines, the final cost of exporter must not exceed 0.75% over 6
month LIBOR, excluding the tax.
The exporter has freedom to avail PCFC in convertible currencies like USD,
Pound, Sterling, Euro, Yen etc. However, the risk associated with the cross
currency truncation is that of the exporter.
The sources of funds for the banks for extending PCFC facility include the
Foreign Currency balances available with the Bank in Exchange, Earner Foreign
Currency Account (EEFC), Resident Foreign Currency Accounts RFC(D) and Foreign
Currency(NonResident) Accounts.
Banks are also permitted to utilize the foreign currency balances available
under Escrow account and Exporters Foreign Currency accounts. It ensures that
the requirement of funds by the account holders for permissible transactions is
met. But the limit prescribed for maintaining maximum balance in the account is
not exceeded. In addition, Banks may arrange for borrowings from abroad. Banks
may negotiate terms of credit with overseas bank for the purpose of grant of
PCFC to exporters, without the prior approval of RBI, provided the rate of
interest on borrowing does not exceed 0.75% over 6 month LIBOR.
4. Deemed exports made to multilateral funds aided projects and
programmes, under orders secured through global tenders for which
payments will be made in free foreign exchange, are eligible for
concessional rate of interest facility both at pre and post supply stages.
5. In case of consultancy services, exports do not involve physical
movement of goods out of Indian Customs Territory. In such cases,
Preshipment finance can be provided by the bank to allow the
exporter to mobilize resources like technical personnel and training them.
6. Where exporters receive direct payments from abroad by means
of cheques/drafts etc. the bank may grant export credit at concessional
rate to the exporters of goods track record, till the time of
realization of the proceeds of the cheques or draft etc. The Banks
however, must satisfy themselves that the proceeds are against an
export order.
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