KARACHI - In view of the changing market requirements, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has recently initiated revision of the Foreign Exchange Manual.

The revision is mainly aimed at introduction of new regulations, simplification of the existing instructions, removal of redundancies and gradual delegation of powers to the Authorized Dealers for facilitation of the stakeholders.

In the first phase, seven chapters of the Manual covering regulations on Authorized Dealers, Authorized Rates of Foreign Exchange, Forward Exchange Facilities, Foreign Currency Accounts of Authorized Dealers and Purchase and Sale of Foreign Currencies, Non-Resident Rupee Accounts of Foreign Bank Branches and Correspondents and Loans, Overdrafts and Guarantees stand revised.

Further, a new chapter has been drafted with the title “Restricted Authorization to deal in Foreign Exchange.” Drafts of these chapters have been placed at the State Bank’s website www.sbp.org.pk soliciting feedback from the stakeholders. The Authorized Dealers and other stakeholders are encouraged to furnish their suggestions/ proposals on the revised chapters at email: fem.epd@sbp.org.pk latest by July 14, 2017. Meanwhile, in order to facilitate the collection of Government duties / taxes, commercial banks will remain open their clearing related branches on June 30, 2017 till such time that is necessary to facilitate two special clearings arranged for Government transactions.