Can Original Bill of lading be surrendered under DP terms of payment ?

Can Original Bill of lading be surrendered under DP terms of payment Before find answer, whether OBL can be surrendered under DP terms, let us find out what is DP terms and how DP terms works.

D.A.P or D/P terms of payment means, Documents against Payment. Once the cargo shipped, the exporter submits all required documents with their bank to send to buyer through buyer’s bank. Here, the amount of exported goods is paid by buyer’s bank once they received export documents from bank and acceptance by the buyer. In normal cases, the buyer’s bank pays the export proceeds immediately up on receipt of required shipping documents . However in some cases, as per my past experience in the trade, the buyer’s bank delays 5 to 10 days to remit the payments due to some of the other technical reasons, as the buyer deliberately delays in accepting the shipping documents.

Now, let us discuss whether original bill of lading can be surrendered under DP terms.

As explained about DP terms, the only major strength and hold on shipment is original bill of lading, as without OBL, buyer can not take delivery of goods.

If seller and buyer agree to surrender original bill of lading at load port, such surrender of OBL can be done at load port and a surrender message can be sent. However, remember, as explained above, if OBL surrendered at load port, there is no ‘hold on goods’ either for seller or buyers bank to get the export proceeds amount.

So in a DP terms of payment, either seller or buyer’s bank does not allow to surrender original bill of lading at load port because, OBL is one and only strength of document to receive invoice value of goods to seller under Documents against Payment terms of export import transaction.