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Business & Finance

Up to $5mn smuggled into Afghanistan from Pakistan daily: report

  • In Bloomberg interview, Zafar Paracha said 'currency is being smuggled without any doubt. This has become quite a lucrative business'
Published February 7, 2023

Traders and smugglers were transferring as much as $5 million across the Pakistani border and into Afghanistan everyday, Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP) General Secretary Zafar Paracha told Bloomberg.

“Currency is being smuggled without any doubt. This has become quite a lucrative business,” he said, adding that this is due to Pakistan’s “flawed” immigration and trade policies and border controls.

The report said the smuggling of dollars provides “some support for the squeezed economy after the US and Europe denied the Taliban regime access to billions in foreign reserves.”

“The illicit flows show how the Taliban are evading sanctions after their 2021 takeover of the country”.

However, it noted that “for Islamabad, the outflows are exacerbating a rapidly developing economic crisis.”

Paracha’s comments come as the Pakistani rupee continued to take a hammering along with sharp depletion in the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) held foreign exchange reserves.

Pak-Afghan transit trade: Customs officials promise to resolve trader’ issues

The rupee closed near an all-time low at Rs276.28 per dollar on Tuesday. In addition, the foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP plunged $592 million to stand at a critical level of $3.09 billion as of January 27.

Meanwhile, the afghani has gained about 5.6% against the greenback over the past year through Monday, one of the strongest performances of any currency in the world.

Pakistan, Afghanistan agree on PTA

Bloomberg quoted Alpha Beta Core CEO Khurram Schehzad as saying that Afghanistan needed about $10 to $15 million daily and half of this amount comes from Pakistan.

Avoidance of double taxation: Draft convention signed with Afghanistan

Meanwhile, Haseeb Noori, spokesman of Taliban-run Da Afghanistan Bank, stated that the neighbouring nation had enough dollars in reserve to support the economy, some of it coming from the UN, which has been providing about $40 million in humanitarian aid each week since last year.

“The smuggling really took off in the middle of last year after Afghanistan increased coal exports to energy-hungry Pakistan,” Bloomberg quoted officials at Afghanistan’s finance ministry as saying.

Smuggling has also been boosted by the Taliban’s ban on the use of Pakistan’s rupee as legal tender in Afghanistan, which forces exporters to trade in dollars and bring the US currency back to the country, the officials said, asking not to be identified because they aren’t authorised to speak to media.

Meanwhile, SBP governor Jameel Ahmad said that “Pakistani market is bound to get affected when they purchase dollars from the local market.”

Comments

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Abdul Feb 07, 2023 06:58pm
If Pakistan offers competitive exchange rates $ won’t fly to Afghanistan, nobody wants to lose money. With few exceptions, money changers are thugs.
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bonce richard Feb 07, 2023 11:04pm
@Abdul , Everything is possible if our honorable army and politicians are sincere for the country. They buy the property and live in London, enjoying nice life with family members. Everyone is involved in corruption.
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Hussain Feb 08, 2023 03:16am
AoA: All ban's on foreign currency should be lifted let the money comes into the country. There are millions of Pakistanis living abroad. They can bring millions of $. What are the benifits of sanctions on foreign exchange? It has increased the smuggling !!!!!
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