The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized a Special Session with Mr. Rahul Tabhane, Country Head-India, UK Export Finance, British Deputy High Commission, Mumbai on 25th July 2019 at The Bengal Chamber premises.

The objective of this forum was to discuss financing support available from UK Export Finance (UKEF) for Indian companies importing from the United Kingdom and for export oriented UK subsidiaries of Indian Companies

Mr. Deb A Mukherjee, Senior Vice President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomed Mr. Rahul Tabhane. Mr. Robert Chatterton Dickson, British High Commissioner to Bangladesh also graced the session along with Mr. Rishikesh Chanda, Senior Trade & Investment Adviser, UK Trade & Investment, British Deputy High Commission, Kolkata and other senior dignitaries of The Bengal Chamber.

Mr. Rahul Tabhane, during the session, mentioned that UKEF is a UK Government Department and is the operating name of the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD). UKEF's primary function is to support exports from the UK and it operates within the conditions set out under the OECD Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits. UKEF extends its support in two broad categories: a) Products and services that finance the overseas buyer. b) Products and services that support the UK exporter.

Mr. Tabhane emphasized that the UKEF guarantee is equivalent to the UK government guarantee which has an outstanding global credit profile. The guarantee acts as a credit enhancement instrument for Indian companies thereby substantially reducing the financing cost and helps them attract long tenor loans from banks and financial institutions. The main criteria to avail the UKEF guarantee is a minimum 20% UK origin content from UK which can be fulfilled via import of goods, services, technology or intellectual property.

He also mentioned about the financing support for UK exporters through various products such as working capital scheme, Bond support scheme, Export Insurance Policy, Bond Insurance Policy, etc and all export oriented UK entities including the UK subsidiaries of Indian companies are eligible for the same.

Mr. Tabhane took the session through few successful case studies like the Oil and Gas case study where UK Export Finance issued a guarantee in respect of a US$1 billion line of credit to Petrobras, to support the financing of contracts involving UK suppliers which related to Petrobras's programme to expand various exploration and production facilities and with Reliance Industries Ltd. of India, a US$300m line of credit facility was set up to enable it to finance the purchase of goods and services from the UK for the expansion of its Petrochemicals facilities and setting up the new Petcoke Gasification and Refinery Off-Gas Cracker.

He concluded his presentation with the aspiration to work with Indian Banks while providing UKEF guarantee in Indian Rupees to finance the import purchase of Indian companies thereby saving nearly 4% per annum hedging cost which gets incurred while attracting foreign currency borrowings.