KARACHI: The rupee once again touched Rs 161.10 for buying and Rs 161.20 for selling in the interbank market on Friday morning mainly due to rising import demands of 152 items from the country’s buyers after removal of customs duty by the government, the market analysts and bankers claimed.
A banker said, “there was a huge demand from the importers of luxuries items including auto parts and textiles as the federal government has removed the additional customs duty on around 152 items this month.” Most of the banks are busy opening Letter of Credits (LCs) of importers which is supporting the US dollar in the interbank market, he claimed. The imports of these items were on halt for the last few months.
He further claimed that the dollar was moving down for a month as there was no demand from the importers. The importers were waiting for the removal of customs duty on raw-material imports and other luxury items including auto parts etc.
In the last three days, the dollar gained Rs 3 in the interbank market closing at Rs 161.10 against the previous close of Rs 158.10 on last Tuesday. In open currency market, the dollar gained Rs 2.70 closing at Rs 160.80 for buying and Rs 161.10 for selling, the Pakistan Forex Association data said.
Malik Bostan said that the dollar is stable in the open market and there was no demand but we are following the interbank rates.
According to the reports, the Tariff Policy Board (TPB) allowed removal of additional customs duty on 152 tariff lines this month to provide cheap raw materials to the industrial sector and reduce the cost of doing business.
The decision was taken by the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce Razak Dawood in a meeting last week with the direction to remove anomalies in the tariff structure to reduce the ease of doing business.
The removal of anomalies will also help in improving the competitiveness of Pakistani exports vis-à-vis its trading partners, said Razaq Dawood.
The analyst of a brokerage house said that most of the luxury import like auto parts, Complete Built Unit, (CBU) of different vehicles were on halt because of the higher customs duty and taxes, but the government has finally given the approval to import. The importers have come to open LCs etc, he claimed.
The government abolished import duties on 1,623 tariff lines, pertaining to basic raw materials and intermediate goods through the Finance Act, 2020. Besides, additional customs and regulatory duties on 164 items related to the textile sector, not manufactured in Pakistan, were also removed.
