KARACHI: Pakistan Customs has urged the State Bank of Pakistan to change the regulations on taking out foreign currency abroad by an individual and has suggested the SBP to reduce it to $3,000 from $10,000 or cap an amount of $25,000 per annum to a person.
According to Collector Model Customs Collectorate (MCC) Preventive S M Tariq Huda, the passengers, who travel abroad, are misusing the facility of carrying an allowed amount of foreign currency.
Huda also suggested that even children under 15 years of age should not be allowed to take any foreign currency abroad with them.
“As per the SBP rules, an individual can take maximum $10,000 abroad, but this provision is being misused as all family members including children are allowed to carry foreign currency as there is no restriction,” he said.
The Collector said that currency transfer by the authorised dealers was monitored by the Preventive Collectorate to ensure the amount was not beyond limits. He said that Pakistan Customs had evolved a mechanism to detect illegal money transfer to gather information about the persons involved in this.
Karachi Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) has also been proposing the authority to remove section 111(4) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 and make tax officials enable to monitor foreign remittances through banking channels. However, the authority kept mum over the proposal.
