Karachi August 5 2022: To provide relief to importers, State Bank of Pakistan has significantly reduced cash margin requirements on 177 items on deferred payments as rupee gains considerably during the week.
Cash margin will be 25% for payments from 91 to 180 days and 0% for payments beyond 180 days instead of previous requirement of 100%.
Earlier on 7th April SBP decided that banks, with immediate effect, shall obtain 100 percent cash margin on the import of 177 items as listed in the enclosed Annexure-A. The cash margins on these specific items was placed till December 31, 2022.
Based on the tiered-approach, the cash margin requirements shall be applicable on the PKR equivalent amount of the import transaction.
It may be noted that the above instructions shall be applicable on all new import transactions initiated by the bank after the issuance date of this circular letter. However, on already initiated import transactions, the instructions may only be applied if the amendments (in terms of payment) are made subsequent to the date of the issuance of instructions in accordance with above table.
The cash margins deposited by importers on all items subject to CMR would be non-remunerative.
