Frequent Changes in Exchange Rates
A concerned Netizen wrote to us,
There was a time, when the rate notified will be for a whole month and it was quite comfortable for the trade and industry. Now, the rate is changed frequently, especially for USD and the same is made applicable from the very next day. There are occasions, where the rates are changed for a particular currency more than thrice in a month. What the government earns out of such action is not known. Due to this, a prospective importer will not be able to confirm his duty liability based on the import documents held with him, as the Board often changes the rates with no time to spare.
This results in a lot of practical difficulties and in real terms, often one has to change even the bond and other documents prepared as per the import documents, as by the time it is presented to customs for clearance, the rate may get upward and has to go for a fresh one. The reduction process will not have any impact, but one has to be subjected to difficulty in the event of rate revision to higher level.
We had raised this issue in DDT-1895 06.07.2012. It was stated, "Earlier there used to be some certainty in these notifications - they were issued effective from the 1st of the month. Now, the Government is issuing these notifications without a specific date. Importers and exporters are to keep a close watch to see whether there was any notification issued on a particular date. Can't there be a little more clarity on this?"
And also in DDT 2126 - 'Can we not formulate some other method to adopt the exchange rate for a particular day rather than keeping on issuing notifications day in and day out because there is always a tendency to fumble while adopting the cut and paste technique?'