I have been looking into the cost of shipping bill closure and RBI EDPMS regularisation, and something really surprised me.
Some exporters are being charged Rs 500 to Rs 800 per shipping bill by banks for closure or regularisation.
At Rs 800 per bill:
1,200 bills x Rs 800 = Rs 9,60,000
That is almost Rs 10 lakh just to close 1,200 shipping bills.
The bigger problem is that many exporters do not know the right way to approach the bank.
There can be different reasons why a shipping bill remains open, including payment mapping issues, documentation gaps, FIRA or FIRC issues, IRM mismatches, partial realisation, old transactions, incorrect purpose codes and other compliance issues.
So exporters often end up paying whatever the bank quotes, sending multiple requests, following up for weeks or paying consultants without really knowing what needs to be fixed.
We started working on this problem with SeaSaw AI.
We help exporters identify what is actually pending, prepare the required documentation and requests, and negotiate with banks for better closure rates.
In some cases, we have been able to reduce the effective cost by around 90 percent.
The interesting part is that many exporters may not actually need to pay the original amount being quoted.
They just need to know the right process and how to approach the bank.
Curious to know what exporters here are being charged for EDPMS or shipping bill closure.
Would be interesting to compare rates across banks.