THE government has recently allocated about Rs80 billion for rewards and motivational schemes on remittances to overseas foreign currency account holders.

Out of Rs80 billion, Rs20 billion have already been transferred to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to unroll the scheme.

It is clearly planed in the face of reduction in foreign exchange remittances, and is aimed at attracting overseas Pakistanis, which is understandable. What is not understandable, however, is the treatment meted out to all the domestic foreign currency accountholders who are being offered extremely poor profit rates on their dollar accounts; not even one per cent per year, mind you.

I have got a dollar account in a Pakistani commercial bank in Karachi`s Clifton area.

The said account maintained a balance of $10,000 for the whole financial year from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.1got $16.06 as gross profit against that amount, while $2.41 were deducted, leaving the net profit of $13.65 for 12 months; $1.13 per month.

The net profit of $13.65 comes to around Rs4,095 in Pakistani currency. If I had deposited about Rs3 million, the equivalent of $10,000 in rupee terms, I would have got something around Rs510,000 as net profit at 17pc. Can we even calculate the percentage of the discrimination between the two amounts; Rs4,095 versus Rs510,000? Struggling to understand the dynamics of this calculation, I approached my bank to seek help. In response to my query, the head of operations told me pointy blank that the bank could not offer more than the profit that had already been paid to me. Defending the bank`s position, he further said that it was my discretion if I wanted to withdraw dollars and get the same encashed in the open market to get more than 400pc against what I have been paid in dollar terms.

In view of this factual position, the government and SBP should look into thisact of discrimination, and investigate why resident Pakistanis having foreign currency accounts in the country are not offered a respectable rate of return on their dollar accounts, and why the unusual rewards and benefits are only being offered to overseas account holders.

Khawaja Tajammul Hussain Karachi