The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has updated the software and reporting mechanism to ensure the track record of foreign exchange inflows and transactions within the relevant stakeholders of the financial system, including banks, foreign and money exchange companies, multinational remittance transfer companies.
Following the recent developments in the financial landscape of the country like ‘permission to exchange companies to purchase foreign currency cash from banks operating in Pakistan,’ and the introduction of ‘Roshan Digital Accounts,’ etc., it has become imperative to update the data collection software pertaining to International Transactions Reporting System (ITRS).
Reporting for Roshan Digital Accounts
It is common practice that the intermediary banks receive remittances on account of transfers to beneficiary banks’ individual (residents/non-residents) local currency (LCY) accounts, including Non-Resident Rupee Value Account (NRVA)/Roshan Digital Accounts.
In the case of remittances received through an intermediary bank in Pakistan, the intermediary bank transfers the remittance along with complete details of underlying transactions to the beneficiary bank. In the case of NRVA, the beneficiary bank will identify the number of transactions received from the intermediary bank for credit to NRVA and share the details with the intermediary bank latest by the second working day of each month.
The intermediary bank will not report the said transactions as workers’ remittances (purpose 9471) while reporting ITRS data except transfers in local currency accounts of residents. In order to adopt a consistent reporting procedure, the intermediary and beneficiary banks are advised to adjust the transfers in NRVA accounts in schedules O&P of summary statement S4. The beneficiary bank will thus report subsequent inward/outward transactions from NRVA in ITRS against the relevant purpose codes.
A new Schedule A-5 has been introduced for yearly reporting of shipments, against which post-facto Export Finance Scheme (EFS) will be claimed by exporters in the next fiscal year. However, no reporting is required on this schedule until separate issuance of detailed instructions for reporting of post-facto entries.
The authorized dealers are required to report the ITRS data according to the above guidelines for the month of January 2022 and onward.
Changes in Format of Form Number
Electronic Form-E and Electronic Form-I are not required for the export/import of goods that fall under the Pakistan Single Window (PSW). Therefore, for all PSW export transactions, ADs are now required to report PSW-generated Financial Instrument Number in case of advance payments, and GD Number in case of transactions other than advance payment. For all import transactions, ADs are required to report Financial Instrument Number Reporting instructions for transactions conducted under WeBOC and One-Custom will remain unchanged.
