Those who questioned my earlier assertion about the allowable limit of US$ 10,000 to be taken out of the country are invited to read the article “$4bn sent abroad legally” in DAWN (12 November 2008). The article concludes with the words, “Another anomaly was that under FERA 1947, an individual could not take out of the country an amount more than $10,000 in cash, whereas FERA 1992 prescribes no such limit. “It is not clear which law takes precedence, the old one or the amended one,†says another expert”.
Accordingly, while the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of 1947 did prescribe a limit of U.S.$ 10,000, the law which replaced it (FERA 1992), no such limit was prescribed. It was for this reason that airport staff stopped searching and asking passengers how much foreign exchange they were carrying.
So why did the government suddenly object to the huge amounts being transferred abroad by money changers?
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