KARACHI: The Governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Jameel Ahmad has claimed that the central bank has cleared around 33,000 LCs with special consideration for raw material imports used in goods which are exported, adding that ” it takes time to verify submissions.”
Addressing the business community at the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) here on Wednesday, the SBP Governor said “evaluating the Letter of Credit (LC) is a time-consuming exercise.”
He said the SBP will carefully evaluate proposals provided by the business community, and soon launch an action plan in this regard.
He assured the business community that the central bank will ensure the approval of 365-day or over LCs from banks. “Similarly, if you have arranged a project loan, and yet the LCs are not being opened, the SBP will ensure it,” he said.
Jameel Ahmad said “we want to facilitate all the industries, however we can only do so under our given capacity of inflows. We do not produce dollars locally, they come through exports, remittances and inflows from lenders.”
He expressed hope that following the inflows the position of foreign exchange reserves — which now stand at lowest level since February 2014 — will strengthen paving the way for the removal of restrictions on imports.
Referring to dollars’ rates manipulation, Governor Jameel Ahmad announced an investigation has been completed, assuring the industry players that strict action will be taken.
“Rest assured all commercial banks involved in manipulating the exchange rate will be held accountable,” he said, adding that a detailed report will be released on January 23 — the same date when the central bank is expected to announce the monetary policy rate.
