Islamabad October 31 2022: All Letter of Credits which are pending amounting to USD 100,000 will start clearing from first of November says finance minister in a video message.
With respect to pending cases of LCs, Ishaq Dar said that last month there were about 8000 pending payments of LCs, out of which 4400 cases of up to $50,000 had already been cleared while now after the government’s decision of increasing the threshold up to $100,000, 1365 more cases would be cleared.
“I met with the Governor SBP in Karachi on Sunday, and with the consent of Sate Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the government has approved increase of the threshold up to $100,000”, he added.
He said implementation on the decision would be implemented from tomorrow.
Earlier on May 20, 2022, SBP decided that Authorized Dealers, with immediate effect, shall seek prior permission from Foreign Exchange Operations Department (FEOD), SBP-BSC before initiating transactions for import of goods listed in the enclosed Annexure which was latter on updated Annexure, subject to following conditions:
- The above requirement shall be applicable for all import transactions initiated by Authorized Dealers through (i) issuance/ amendment of letter of credit; (ii) registration/ amendment of contract; (iii) making advance payment; (iv) authorizing transactions on open account or collections basis;
- The above requirement shall not be applicable on import transactions initiated by the Authorized Dealers on or before the date of issuance of this circular letter;
- Authorized Dealers may approach Director, FEOD, SBP-BSC, Head Office, Karachi, along with appropriate documents and its recommendation on a case to case basis;
- Authorized Dealers shall be required to suitably amend the importer’s bank profile in Pakistan Single Window to ensure that the aforementioned import transaction shall not be initiated on open account basis without prior permission from State Bank.
