Travellers can keep forex for 180 days: RBI

Mumbai, May 18 (UNI) In a significant departure from its existing policy on retaining unspent foreign exchange for frequent travellers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today doubled the duration period to six months from the three months for retaining unspent foreign exchange.

''It will be in order for any resident individual to surrender received/realised/unspent/unused foreign exchange to an authorised person within a period of 180 days,'' the RBI said in its latest notification.

The move is certainly like to bring cheers to the frequent Indian travellers to various destinations across the globe.

The central bank's latest decree seems to have come in view of the fact that country's forex reserves have touched a record US 200 billion dollars mark, a development that many analysts attribute to appreciation of Indian rupee.

In addition to this, contrary to its earlier rule, wherein there were different time limits for returning foreign exchange depending upon the form and purpose for which it was taken, the RBI has also fixed a time limit of six months for the same purpose, the release added.

According to earlier RBI policy on forex, while travellers were required to return the unused foreign currency within the stipulated 90 days, the time-limit was 180 days if the forex was obtained in the form of travellers cheque. Also, foreign exchange which could not be used for the purpose it was obtained was required to surrender within 60 days.

UNI