Pending payments from Russia a worry for exporters

Indian exporters, in a quandary over pending payments from Russian importers, are seeking the intervention of the government and the top bank to resolve their issue.

Among those affected are mainly people involved in the export of tea, steel, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The payments, amounting to millions of dollars, are stuck due to sanctions imposed by the West, as per a report by Economic Times, with Russia being excluded from the SWIFT payment system.

"The rupee payment has come but the dollar payment has not yet come. We are clueless (about) when the exporters will get their payments," South India Tea Exporters Association chairman Dipak Shah was quoted as saying.

"We are writing to the Reserve Bank of India to intervene so that the estates do not face any operational difficulties," he was quoted as saying.

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According to the report, the disruption to the cash flows could delay payments to workers, suppliers and lenders.

In the first 10 months of the financial year that ended in 2022, India's exports to Russia totalled $2.85 billion, according to Bank of Baroda Economic Research data. In contrast, the imports totalled $7.90 billion.

"It is not only tea that is facing the pain of delayed payments. Engineering, chemicals, plastics too are suffering as their payments have got stuck," Ajay Sahai, director-general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), was quoted as saying.

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