The CBI had earlier announced that non-oil exporters should bring their earnings back by July 21. It had routinely protested that export companies were dodging their financial commitments and had failed to repatriate $27 billion in overseas earnings in the past two years.
In a talk with reporters on Sunday, Abdolnasser Hemmati said the current process of export earning repatriation is satisfactory.
“About $2.5 billion was brought back by exporters before the deadline,” IRIB quoted him as saying.
Hemmati said the returned earnings were sold to companies wanting to import raw material, equipment and other goods.
“A balance is shaping up between supply and demand for foreign currency at Nima and offers are increasing.”
Nima is the Persian acronym for the Integrated Foreign Exchange Deals System. It is a special trading platform where exporters sell their proceeds and importers buy. Shortage of currency in this particular market has been blamed for the steep hike in currency rates in the past several months.
Exporters are required to sell at least half of their revenue in the secondary market at exchange rates below the open market, according to rules governing export repatriation in the past two years. As per previous rules, exporters were required to sell at least 10% of the total forex proceeds.
The regulator tightened forex repatriation rules for the current fiscal year (March 2020-21). The new regulations announced by the CBI last month stipulate that all exporters should bring back at least 80% of their earnings in “foreign exchange hawala” and 20% in hard currency. The currency has to be sold via Nima to banks and authorized exchange bureaus.