Policy Circular No. 47 dated 23^rd October 1998

Representations have been received from various Exporters that after full utilisation of duty free licences, the Exchange Control copy of the said licences are required to be submitted to the authorised dealers for onward transmission to RBI. Hence they cannot submit Exchange Control copy of the Licence to the Regional Licensing Authorities.

2.     The matter has been taken up with the RBI. In this connection, RBI has clarified that as per the provisions of para 7A.19 of Exchange Control Manual (1993 edition) the Exchange Control copy of import licence submitted by the importer for opening of letter of credit or making remittance should be retained by authorised dealer and forwarded to RBI after it has been fully utilised alongwith R Returns pertaining to the period during which the last remittances under the licence were made.

3.     Therefore, all the licensing authorities are advised not to insist for surrender of Exchange Control Copy of duty free licences after their utilisation and may consider the request of the licensees' for discharge of export obligation under the duty free licences on the basis of photocopy of the Exchange Control copy of the licences alongwith their annexure and original certificate duly certified from the authorised dealer to the effect that original Exchange Control Purpose Copy of the duty free licence has been surrendered to them.

This issues with the approval of Director General of Foreign Trade.