The Reserve Bank of India has reinstated the nine-month deadline for exporters to repatriate foreign earnings, reversing a temporary relaxation, as part of a broader move to tighten compliance and stabilise the rupee amid external uncertainties.
The Reserve Bank of India has pulled back a short-lived easing that would have given exporters more time to bring home foreign earnings, reinstating the tighter nine-month repatriation deadline that had previously applied. According to reporting by The Economic Times, the earlier relaxation had stretched the timeline to 15 months, but the central bank has now restored the shorter window before the change was due to take effect on 1 October.
The move is designed to encourage quicker inflows of dollars into India’s financial system and to lend support to the rupee in the foreign-exchange market, The Economic Times reported. It also tightens compliance expectations for exporters, who must track payment receipts more closely, and for banks, which will need to monitor outstanding export proceeds and ensure that documentation and follow-up are in order.
The reversal comes after the RBI had already been using policy levers to support exporters during a period of external uncertainty. In a separate move reported earlier by The Economic Times, the central bank extended the enhanced export credit window to 30 June, allowing up to 450 days for pre-shipment and post-shipment finance on disbursals made up to that date. That relief, introduced amid conflict-related disruption and earlier tariff worries, was meant to preserve working capital for exporters while trade conditions remained unsettled.
More broadly, the change reflects a firmer regulatory stance on foreign-exchange discipline as India tries to ensure export earnings are realised promptly. Legal and regulatory commentary published by AZB Partners and Casansaar said the RBI has also been overhauling its foreign-exchange framework, with new regulations and directions due to come into force on 1 October, and the restored nine-month rule now sits within that broader tightening of export and import rules.
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