Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday chaired a meeting with exchange currency association of Pakistan and decided that action would be taken against any exchange company that sells dollars at higher than the market rates. According to sources, Prime Minister Imran Khan decided to constitute a committee tasked to submit proposals to improve the market mechanism.
The meeting noted that demand and supply situation was also discussed with the consensus being that there was no shortage of supply of dollars but the market mechanism needed to be improved.
The exchange companies, SBP, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Finance Ministry officials also attended the meeting. The dollar was sold between Rs 145 to Rs 147, with forex exchange companies claiming that the market rate rose to Rs 146 and closed at Rs 144 in the open market in the federal capital on Wednesday.
Economists who requested anonymity attribute this to the press release uploaded on the International Monetary Fund website on 12 May, 2019 after a staff-level agreement was reached with the Pakistani authorities on a $6 billion bail out package averring that the rupee value would hence forth be "market-determined."
According to US/Pak rupee exchange rate updated on the website of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on May 15, 2019, dollar weighted average bid rate in inter-bank was Rs 141.1573 and offer was Rs 141.5317. The difference between the inter-bank and open market is well above the acceptable level of Re 1.