Consultants urge govt to allow local deals involving foreign currencies via RBI

Consultants and service providers have urged the government to stop routing domestic deals involving foreign currencies like dollars via the US banking system to avoid transaction fees and save foreign currency.

Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats (ICT) chairman K K Kapila said at present a transaction fee is levied on US dollar transactions within the country.

Citing an example, Kapila said payment in USD from Delhi to even nearby Faridabad from one entity to the other in the current dispensation is required to be undertaken through the US banking system.

"This should be undertaken directly through the Reserve Bank of India and there should be no requirement of routing them through the American Banking system," he said.

Kapila pointed out that a small country like the Philippines does not route its internal foreign exchange transactions through the United States. India can also do the same, he added.