The article “Dismantle the forex licence raj” (Business Line, June 17) is an eye-opener into the hurdles one has to face while effecting forex transactions. The Foreign Exchange Management Act (1999) or FEMA, which became an Act on June 1, 2000, has been introduced as a replacement for the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA). One of the advantages of the liberalised era is freedom from various controls. The author has pointed out the various anomalies and contradictions that emanate from a “control mindset”, such as NRE accounts under “non-repatriable” and “repatriable” heads, declaration insisted by banks from individual customers transacting in forex, complexities in joint account of residents with non-residents, two separate yardsticks for Resident Foreign Currency accounts maintained within the country and abroad, proliferation of regulators for forex transactions, and so on. The above hurdles in individual forex transactions are indeed disheartening and, therefore, need elimination or modification. The author, an authority on forex transactions, has pinned hope on the Committee for Review of Procedures Relating to Foreign Exchange Facilities for individuals — Resident/Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs). The objective of the Committee under Ms K. J. Udeshi, former Deputy Governor, RBI, is to identify areas for streamlining and simplifying procedures so as to remove the operational impediments and assess the level of efficiency in the functioning of authorised persons.
Mathew Abraham (Business Line)
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