Karachi  -  The Pakistani rupee regained some lost ground against the US dollar on Wednesday due to the measures taken by central State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to streamline availability, dealers said.

The rupee, which touched 66 against the dollar on Tuesday in an unofficial open market, was trading at 65.25/65.35(buying/selling) on Wednesday.

In the inter-bank market too the rupee slightly appreciated against the dollar to close at 64.52/64.54 against 64.58/64.62 on Tuesday.

In an after-market move on Tuesday, the State Bank of Pakistan slapped new rules for exchange companies by forcing them to sell a minimum 15 per cent of all foreign remittances which they receive into inter-bank market as against 10 per cent previously required.

The central bank also tightened rules on unbridled buying and selling of dollars in the open market by directing exchange companies to submit details to the central bank for all transactions above 5,000 US dollars.

Overall, the central bank has directed that all exchange companies should now provide a minimum 25 per cent of their entire foreign exchange to the banking sector, including minimum 10 per cent to the inter-bank market and rest of the 15 per cent by maintaining foreign currency accounts with the banking sector.

These measures were taken to avoid shortage in the inter-bank foreign currency market as the Pakistani rupee has lost over 5 per cent against the dollar during the last two months on import pressures and rising international energy cost.

The central bank also tightened credit limit measures in foreign currency by halving the limit to 50 per cent against the value of irrevocable letters of credit as against 100 per cent allowed earlier. (dpa)