KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has withheld a payment against export of rice to Iran without any reason, although the export was made with the consent of the bank, alleged Jawed Ali Ghori, chairman of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap) on Monday.
�SBP is not releasing export proceeds to one of our members against the dispatch of rice to an importer in Iran,� he said.He said that Amir Rice Traders from Gujranwala has recently exported 240 tons of basmati rice (worth 166,175 euro) to Iran in the near past with the consent of the central bank.

The importer took delivery of the commodity successfully and SBP received the payment against the export in its account as well. However, the bank is not releasing the payment to the exporter.

He said that this was the third consignment of export of rice to Iran by the same exporter in the last few months. The State bank released payments against previous two consignments, he added.

Ghori said the exporter submitted �e-form� to the bank, which means that the export was made with the consent of the bank. �If exports to Iran were prohibited then why the bank had not stopped the exporter from exporting the commodity, and how did export proceeds of previous two consignments successfully transfer into bank account of the exporter,� he questioned.

He said that he had also written a letter to the governor SBP in this regard and sought an appointment to meet and discuss the issue with him. But, the governor did not respond to the letter, nor did he give an appointment till date.

Besides, he (chairman-Reap) has also written letters to various officials of the central bank, and is seeking appointments everyday, but none of his calls were being responded, he said. �The only response to my telephone calls is that the contacted person is in a meeting or at lunch.�

He further said that Pakistani traders exported 6,774 tons of basmati rice to Iran in the first week of March and hoped that SBP would release all the payments as soon as it (SBP) received them from importers. �If there is any ambiguity in exports to Iran, it should be removed as soon as possible as Iran is a big buyer of Pakistani rice.�

By The News International

 

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