• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

M.R. Subramani

Chennai, Aug 5

The Centre’s decision to allow companies with letter of credits (LCs) only to export maize is seen as a move that is supporting large firms. Exporters who ship in smaller lots feel that those who have filed their shipping bills or who have valid contracts should be allowed to export.

“LCs are opened only by big companies. It can also be done by an arm of the multi-national abroad with its arm here. No prices are entered in the contracts and sometimes, they are sold to third parties,” says a Chennai-based exporter.

“Small exporters cannot open LCs because of the heavy cost involved. Instead, they depend on documents against payment (DP) or telegraphic transfer (TT),” says Mr P.S. Nathan of Apoorva Agencies.In the case of DP, the bank pays the exporters once the documents for shipping are produced to it. In the case of TT, the exporter gets the money once the documents are faxed to the buyer.

“We export in containers to countries such as Malaysia. The time taken for delivery is four days. We cannot be opening LCs for such transactions,” says Mr A. Rajkumar of Alagendran Group.

More Stories on : Foodgrains | Exports & Imports

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line