Foreign currency exchange companies short of Australian dollar

LAHORE: A number of people, who want to travel to Australia, are facing great difficulties in purchasing Australian dollars as majority of the foreign currency exchange companies in Lahore are short of the currency in question.

A citizen, Muhammad Awais, told Business Recorder on Wednesday that majority of the foreign exchange companies had no supply of the Australian dollars, and those dealers who had the supply were offering the currency at “exorbitant rates”. He claimed that even the currency exchange companies at Lahore airport had also no supply of the Australian dollars.

“I urgently need at least 2,000 Australian dollars as my flight to Australia is due on coming Friday,” he said, adding that he searched for the currency from post to pillar but could not find any.

“During my search, I finally found two foreign exchange companies at Mall Road that were selling the Australian dollars, but at exorbitant rates,” he claimed. At one currency exchange, Australian dollar was available against Rs 165 while the other one was offering the same against Rs 164.50, he added.

He said that as per international market price, the value of an Australian dollar should not be more than Rs 160. Usually, the difference between the buying and selling rates fluctuates around Rs 1 or 2, but the currency exchange dealers were charging Rs 5 against each Australian dollar, he pointed out.

Surprisingly, he said, both the currency exchange companies told him that they would sell him the Austrian dollars subject to the production of passport along with flight ticket. He claimed that the first currency exchange dealer told him that they had not more than 2,500 Australian dollars while the second dealer had only 3,000 dollars.

When contacted, Uzair Ahmed, a foreign currency exchange dealer at Mall Road, admitted they had limited supply of the Australian dollars following its rising demand. He explained that majority of the people travel to Australia for long-term which creates short supply. However, he denied the notion that the currency exchange dealers were selling the Australian dollars at “exorbitant rates” saying that they had purchased one Australian dollar against Rs 163 and the profit margin was “reasonable”.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022