KATHMANDU, Jan 1: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has reduced the mandatory ceiling of opening the letter of credit (LC) account while importing goods from India.

Issuing an amended unified directive on Friday, NRB has said that importers now need to open a LC account if they are importing goods worth more than IRs 30 million from India. As of now, the LC account has been mandatory only on imports of over IRs 50 million.

Likewise, the central bank has also imposed a curb on availability of Indian currency that is exchanged to pay service charges in India. In the new provision, any individual or firm can receive only up to IRs 300,000 to settle the service charges to Indian authorities. Earlier, there was no such limit imposed on the exchange of Indian currency under the heading.

Citing an increasing pressure on the foreign currency reserves, NRB has been enforcing various measures to check outflow of the foreign exchange. Since Thursday, NRB has enforced the limit for a traveler to draw foreign currencies equivalent to upto US $ 1,500 only twice a year.  

 
• LC_account
 
• imports
 
• India