The Reserve Bank of India has substantially liberalised rules for release of foreign exchange for activities such as employment and basic travel quota (BTQ). The Reserve Bank has also significantly enhanced the powers of authorised dealers(ADs) in release of exchange and simplified the procedure for certain trade related activities. In terms of these enhanced powers, ADs can now release foreign exchange:

• up to US$ 3,000 per person towards basic travel quota.
• up to US$ 2,500 per person in addition to the BTQ entitlement of US$ 3,000 for going abroad on employment.
• up to US$ 1,000 per person per year towards gift to relatives/friends.
• US$ 1,000 towards donations to charitable/educational/religious/cultural organisations abroad.

Earlier, authorised dealers could release foreign exchange up to US$ 2,000 per beneficiary towards basic travel quota, US$ 500 per calendar year per beneficiary towards gift, US$ 500 towards donations and US$ 500 per person or US$ 1,000 per family for emigration.

The Reserve Bank has also enhanced the limit for ADs to effect advance remittances towards import without a bank guarantee from US $5,000 to US$15,000 or equivalent as the earlier limit was fixed a few years ago.

The authorised dealers can now also release foreign exchange towards service related remittances, such as, tie-up arrangements between Indian agents and overseas principals for booking of hotel accommodation and use of prepaid telecard abroad and a percentage as advance payment; remittances of surplus freight collections by offline carriers, surplus passage/freight collection by foreign shipping companies, remittances of break bulk agents' remuneration on outward consolidation of air cargo, operating expenses of Indian airlines/shipping companies, remittances of operational charges by Indian courier companies, and repatriation of current income, etc.

The details of the delegated powers as enclosed in the annexure are also available at the RBI website at http://www.reservebank.com.

(P.T. Achuthan)
Manager

Press Release : 1997-98/13