Money and banking drive economic activity by facilitating transactions, savings, and investments. Banks manage financial resources, offer credit, and regulate money supply, ensuring stability and growth in Pakistan’s financial sector.
KARACHI: The Pak Rupee gained 17 paisas against US dollar in mid-day trade on improved inflows.
The dollar is being traded at Rs140.10 in interbank foreign exchange market. The foreign currency market ended Rs140.27 in last day trading.
Currency experts said that due to IMF loan program there would be pressure on the local currency in coming days. However, they said that the narrowing trade deficit and shrinking current account deficit could help the local currency to maintain levels.
KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will announce Monetary Policy for the next two months on Friday, March 29, 2019, a statement said on Wednesday.
In the last monetary policy announcement, the central bank increased the policy rate by 25 basis points to 10.25 percent effective from February 01, 2019.
The monetary policy committee (MPC) decided to increase the rate on the basis of: (i) the fiscal deficit is yet to show signs of consolidation despite a reduction in PSDP spending; (ii) although a gradual improvement in current account deficit is visible, it remains high; (iii) a marked shift in the pattern of government borrowing from scheduled banks to SBP entails inflationary concerns; and (iv) even as stabilization measures gradually work through the economy, underlying inflationary pressures persist.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the SBP to increase policy rate by 75 basis points to 11.00 percent (Discount rate 11.50 percent) in the upcoming monetary policy statement.
This might be the last rate hike before Pakistan enters the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program whereas inflation will remain moderate after making its peak in the ongoing month.
The monetary tightening is expected on the back of i) rising inflationary pressure due to recovery in prices of petroleum products and essential food items, ii) mounting Fiscal deficit despite sharp cut in PSDP and rationalization of tariffs and duties, and iii) narrowing real interest rate as it declined to 1.6 percent compared to last four year average of 2.85 percent.
KARACHI: The Pak Rupee gained two paisas against dollar on Tuesday amid higher demand for import and corporate payments.
The rupee ended Rs140.27 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs140.29 in interbank foreign exchange market.
The interbank foreign exchange market was initiated in the range of Rs140.25 and Rs140.30.
The market recorded day high of Rs140.30 and low of Rs140.26 and closed at Rs140.27.
The exchange rate in open market however ended with appreciation of local currency against the dollar.
The buying and selling of dollar was recorded at Rs140.50/Rs141.00 from previous day’s closing of Rs140.80/Rs141.30 in cash ready market.
KARACHI: The Pak Rupee ended down by 5 paisas against the US dollar on Monday despite reports of inflows from China.
The rupee ended Rs140.29 to the dollar from last Friday’s close of Rs140.24 in interbank foreign exchange market.
The interbank foreign exchange market was initiated in the range of Rs140.25 and Rs140.30.
The market recorded day high of Rs140.30 and low of Rs140.28 and closed at Rs140.29.
Currency experts said that the rupee was under pressure due to ongoing talks of the government with IMF for new loan program.
The exchange rate in the open market was remained stable.
The buying and selling of dollar was recorded at Rs140.80/Rs141.30, the same level of last Friday’s in cash ready market.
KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday directed all commercial banks to ensure receiving payment of duty and taxes through over the counter (OTC) channel.
The SBP said that the finance department through circular on July 17, 2018 made it mandatory for banks to enable their Over-the-Counter (OTC) Channel for collection of taxes and duties.
Complaints are pouring in from different quarters, regarding non-entertaining of tax payment requests through banks’ OTC Channel.
So much so that Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has formally launched a complaint that PSIDs generated by WeBOC system for payment of customs duty and other taxes especially the levy on Mobile devices are not being entertained, by the bank branches.
In view of the above, all banks were advised vide email dated 15th March 2019 to improve their customer services in facilitating taxpayers with due courtesy.
Despite the above-referred instructions, there is no visible improvement, as complaints from different quarters are still landing with us.
It is therefore advised to share these instructions with all your branches across the country with the advice to ensure meticulous compliance and facilitate the taxpayers in payment of taxes and duties under the I Link’s OTC facility.
The branches shall also prominently display on their respective Notice Boards that “Taxes and Duties are accepted here under the 1Link’s OTC facility”. Further, banks shall also ensure that the branch staff has adequate understanding of the mechanism for collection of taxes and duties under the said facility.
The banks shall inform this department within 3 working days of the date of circular i.e. 27th March 2019 that these instructions have been communicated to all their branches for meticulous compliance and that the Notice Boards of branches are prominently displaying the message that “Taxes and Duties are accepted here under the 1Link’s OTC facility”.
KARACHI: The Pak Rupee fell 75 paisas against US dollar on Friday owing to higher demand for import and corporate payments.
(more…)KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced bank holiday on March 23, 2019 on occasion of Pakistan Day.
In a circular issued by the SBP said that the State Bank of Pakistan would remain closed on March 23, 2019 (Saturday) being public holiday on the occasion of “Pakistan Day” as declared by the Government of Pakistan.
KARACHI: The Pak Rupee significantly declined by 61 paisas against US dollar in early trade on Friday.
The dollar is being traded at Rs140.10 in interbank foreign exchange market. The foreign currency market was ended last day at Rs139.49 to the dollar.
Currency experts said that due to high demand for import and corporate payment and coming weekly holidays escalated the pressure.
The latest increase in dollar value was despite the rise in foreign exchange reserves of the country.
KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday said that it noticed visually impaired persons find it difficult to recognize and distinguish amongst different Pakistani currency notes.
SBP, for the information of the general public and specifically visually impaired persons, reiterates that Pakistani currency notes have specific features to help the visually impaired persons to identify the genuineness of currency notes and to distinguish between different denominations.
All currency notes of Rs.20 and above contain braille features on its front side that help to determine the denomination of a currency notes. For this purpose, raised dots and small horizontal lines are printed on the left bottom corner just above the banknote serial number.
This feature makes banknote denominations easily distinguishable by rubbing the thumb against these raised features.
The braille features in each denomination appear in this manner: Rs.20 has one line, Rs.50 two lines and Rs.100 has three lines while other higher denomination notes have dots as braille feature. Specifically, Rs.500 has one dot; Rs.1000 two dots, and Rs.5000 three dots.
All braille features on currency notes of all denominations of Rs. 20 & above are printed through Intaglio process, due to which they appear raised and on the front side of the note only.
Thus, a visually impaired person can easily infer the denomination of the banknotes by feeling the raised printing as well as its genuineness.
All Pakistani currency notes have denomination-wise tiered sizing. Each currency note has the same width of 65 mm whereas lengthwise, each banknote is exactly 08 mm longer than the preceding denomination.
Thus the highest denomination banknote of Rs.5000 is 48mm longer than the lowest denomination currency note of Rs.10.
The incorporation of a number of strong security features including braille features in banknotes are aimed at facilitating general public. To create awareness about currency note features among the masses, SBP provided complete details on its website
Moreover, it has launched Videos and a Smartphone application on security features of currency notes which provide information on security features of currency notes both in descriptive and pictorial forms.
It may also be mentioned that 16 field offices of SBP-BSC spread across Pakistan, conduct awareness campaigns all over the country. These sessions are usually arranged in high traffic areas and involve in depth briefing on currency note features.
To augment the awareness of banknote features, SBP has mandated the prominent display through posters containing security features in every commercial bank branch under instructions to guide customers of the currency note features, as required.
The SBP BSC field offices are also arranging special awareness sessions tailored towards the needs of visually impaired persons. These sessions will be organized in collaboration with social welfare organizations/trusts that are dedicated to serving different factions of the general public, especially the visually impaired who are an invaluable part of the Pakistani society.
SBP also urges general public to educate visually impaired persons about features of Pakistani currency notes wherever possible.
KARACHI: The Pak Rupee depreciated by five paisas against the US dollar on Thursday due to import and corporate payments.
The rupee ended Rs139.49 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs139.44 in interbank foreign exchange market.
The interbank foreign exchange market was initiated in the range of Rs139.48 and Rs139.50. The market recorded day high of Rs139.50 and low of Rs139.49.
The exchange rate in open market also deteriorated.
The dollar’s buying and selling was recorded at Rs139.70/Rs140.20 as compared with Rs139.30/Rs139.80 in the cash ready market.