As the Pakistani rupee continued to remain under pressure due to a lack of US dollar, the greenback currency has reclaimed some of the territory it had previously lost.
As opposed to 295-300 the day before, the US dollar was “quoted” against the rupee on Thursday in the range of 298-303.
However, the rates remained meaningless in the absence of a sizable volume and a USD shortage.
According to several dealers, the local currency is once again under pressure due to a market scarcity of US dollars due to a drop in supply.
Under the condition of anonymity, a dealer claimed that businesses only make trades based on the amount of money they receive that day.
“Exchange corporations won’t sell dollars at 298 now that they purchased at 305-310. They will wait, the dealer said, citing a lack of inventory.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) permitted authorized foreign exchange dealers to buy US dollars from the interbank market for the settlement of card-based cross-border transactions with International Payment Schemes (IPS), which led to a sharp increase in the value of the Pakistani Rupee on Thursday.
Prior to this, approved dealers were permitted by SBP directions to buy USD from any exchange company for the purpose of settling card-based cross-border transactions with IPSs like Visa, MasterCard, etc.
However, in order to assist consumers who were observing a bigger disparity between the two currency markets, the SBP agreed to permit the purchase of dollars from other banks for such payments.
Separately, on Thursday, Malik Bostan, the chairman of Exchange Companies of Pakistan (ECAP), proposed the early application of a 10 percent tax on purchases made online for luxury goods and overseas using debit and credit cards.
