On Thursday, the PKR lost Rs1.56 to the dollar in the interbank market.
The local currency lost 0.66 percent value and ended the day at Rs235.88 per $1. The PKR’s closing price yesterday was Rs234.32 per $1.Zafar Paracha, general secretary of the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (Escape), claimed that the rupee was under “a lot of friendly nations’ refusal to fulfill their promises to send aid has led to “pressure.”
He declared that “the smuggling of funds and goods into and out of Iran and Afghanistan is at its peak.”
The government’s move to impose high regulatory taxes on the import of luxury and non-essential goods, according to Paracha, has increased smuggling and put pressure on the open market while “almost drying up” the supply of dollars in the interbank market.
Exchange companies who once sold $25 to $30 million per day are no longer able to sell anything at all. We are working to keep the dollar rate in the open market below Rs 240, but prices in the interbank and grey markets are rising, he lamented.
The general secretary of Ecap claimed that after the government increased the rules and regulations placed on exchange businesses, individuals stopped visiting ECs and started shopping on the grey market.
In Peshawar, the price of a dollar is Rs248; in Afghanistan, it costs between Rs250 and Rs252.
