Pakistan's response to cash leaving across its western border sits in a customs instrument rather than a monetary one. A notification of 12 December 2022 amended the Baggage Rules to cap the foreign currency a traveller may take out, setting one schedule for all countries and a separate, much lower one for Afghanistan.
A state decides what its money is and who may issue it. It does not decide where the paper goes. Once notes are outside the territory, the issuer's authority over them ends, and what remains is control of its own border. Pakistan's response to cash moving west is a clear worked example, and it is written into a customs schedule rather than a monetary one.
Key Takeaways
- The operative instrument is a customs notification amending the Baggage Rules, not a central bank circular.
- It sets one foreign-currency schedule for travel to all countries and a separate, lower one for Afghanistan.
- Outbound foreign currency must be declared at any amount; inbound only above a threshold.
- A customs directorate created in 2019 exists specifically to profile currency movements.
- The measures that acted on Pakistani cash inside Afghanistan were taken by the authorities there.
The lever a state actually has
Its own frontier, and the instrument reflects that.
The current rule is S.R.O. 2201(I)/2022, issued by the Federal Board of Revenue on 12 December 2022 under section 219 of the Customs Act 1969, amending the Baggage Rules 2006. It replaces the sub-rule governing how much foreign currency a departing traveller may carry, and it does so with a table.
For any person travelling abroad other than to Afghanistan, the permitted amounts are USD 5,000 per visit and USD 30,000 in a calendar year for an adult, and USD 2,500 and USD 15,000 for a person under eighteen. The annual limits apply from the 2023 calendar year, with the previous year's limits running to the end of 2022.
Note what kind of instrument this is. It is a customs notification made under a customs statute and administered at the border by customs officers. The limits on carrying the rupee itself are set separately, in the State Bank's Foreign Exchange Manual, and are not part of this instrument. A state that wants to slow the movement of cash reaches for the agency that searches baggage.
One country is named separately
The same notification sets a second table, and it applies to a single destination.
For travellers to Afghanistan the limits are USD 1,000 per person per visit and USD 6,000 per person per year. That is one fifth of the per-visit amount and one fifth of the annual amount allowed for travel anywhere else.
The instrument gives no reasons, as customs notifications generally do not. What it does is put a country-specific measure into a general schedule, which is a quieter way of doing it than a named prohibition and has the same effect at the counter.
| Foreign currency taken out, travelling to | Adult, per visit | Adult, per calendar year |
|---|---|---|
| Any country except Afghanistan | USD 5,000 | USD 30,000 |
| Afghanistan | USD 1,000 | USD 6,000 |
The apparatus around it
A limit is only as real as the machinery that applies it, and there is a directorate for this.
Customs General Order 04/2019, dated 6 May 2019, established a directorate for cross-border currency movement. Its listed functions are the analysis and profiling of currency movements, the maintenance of seizure databases, and coordination with law enforcement agencies. Alongside it, the customs authority records joint control rooms at international airports staffed by customs, airport security, the anti-narcotics force and the federal investigation agency, and scanning equipment at three major border stations.
The declaration regime is asymmetric in a way that shows what the concern is. Any person taking foreign currency out must file a declaration before or at the time of departure, electronically through the customs system or manually at the airport, and the requirement carries no minimum amount. An incoming passenger declares only when carrying more than USD 10,000 or the equivalent. The declaration form itself puts the traveller on notice under two statutes, the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947 and the Customs Act 1969.
Outbound movement is the thing being watched.
What the enforcement record shows
Two dated official figures, seven years apart, and they point the same way.
For July 2018 to April 2019 the customs authority reported seizures of approximately Rs 450 million, against Rs 150 million in the corresponding period the previous year, alongside currency declarations of around USD 20 million between January and April 2019 and more than thirty arrests for currency smuggling.
The most recent official figure is narrower and more useful, because it is specific to the western corridor. A government press release of 18 June 2026 reported that the Collectorate of Customs Enforcement at Peshawar realised Rs 479.975 million from confiscated foreign currency in the 2025 to 2026 financial year, an increase of 105.12 per cent on the year before, within a total of Rs 2.902 billion from the disposal and confiscation of gold, silver and foreign currency.
That is revenue realised from disposal rather than the face value of what was stopped, and it should be read as a measure of enforcement activity rather than of the size of the flow.
Why the pressure was attributed to the border
Because the authorities said so, and the IMF recorded it.
Reviewing Pakistan's programme after discussions held in November 2023, the Fund noted that the interbank exchange rate had come under pressure in early September, which the authorities attributed to speculation and to smuggling of foreign exchange and goods over the Afghan border. It recorded the response: the authorities tightened border enforcement, and the central bank announced measures strengthening capital and governance requirements for exchange companies.
That is an attribution by the authorities rather than a finding by the Fund, and it is worth reading as such. What it establishes is that the cash channel was treated as a monetary problem at the highest level of policy, and answered with border enforcement and dealer regulation rather than with anything done to the notes themselves.
What happens on the other side of the line
The reach stops, and the evidence for that is unusually concrete.
The World Bank's monitoring of Afghanistan's economy tracks the availability of foreign exchange inside the country by surveying money service providers, and it tracks exactly four currencies. The Pakistani rupee is one of them, alongside the US dollar, the Iranian toman and the UAE dirham. The survey covers 144 providers across 48 markets, including banks, hawala operators and informal exchangers. A currency is not monitored that way unless it is in working circulation.
Nothing Pakistan does at its own border changes that. What did act on foreign currency inside Afghanistan was done by the authorities there: the same World Bank reporting records them prohibiting foreign currency denominated domestic transactions and regulating the money service provider sector, while the central bank was not running its regular foreign exchange auctions.
So the two levers belong to two different states. One controls what leaves; the other controls what may be used on arrival. Neither is the issuer exercising authority over its own paper abroad, because that is not a thing either of them can do.
On the general question, the honest answer is that no authoritative source consulted here addresses whether an issuing central bank retains any legal authority over its banknotes once they are outside its territory. The practical answer is visible in who acted, and where.
Changing what the trade settles in
The other response is to reduce the demand for the cash rather than police it.
Pakistan has moved parts of its trade with Afghanistan off hard currency, permitting settlement of a list of exports in rupees in 2022 and establishing a business-to-business barter mechanism in 2023 covering Afghanistan among other countries. In late 2023 the Ministry of Commerce also restricted the import of certain items through Afghan transit trade, by two notifications cited in the World Bank's reporting of the resulting fall in imports.
The context has since changed again. The World Bank's March 2026 monitor records prolonged border closures with Pakistan disrupting Afghanistan's external trade, with shipments increasingly redirected through Central Asia at higher cost.
Where to look next
The AUD to PKR page carries the live reference rate and a short block on the rupee travel allowance, including the limits on carrying notes out that this guide does not restate. For the three distinct ways a currency comes to be used outside its issuer's borders, the three ways a currency is used abroad sets out the categories, and what has to exist for a currency to cross a border covers the preconditions. The formal channel these border rules sit alongside is described under remittance.
Sources
- Federal Board of Revenue, S.R.O. 2201(I)/2022, 12 December 2022 - the amendment to rule 7A(2) of the Baggage Rules 2006 under section 219 of the Customs Act 1969; Table A for travel other than to Afghanistan and Table B for travel to Afghanistan; the annual limits applying from the 2023 calendar year; the outbound declaration requirement with no minimum and the inbound threshold; and the two statutes named on the declaration form
- Federal Board of Revenue, effective steps taken by customs operations to curb money laundering - Customs General Order 04/2019 of 6 May 2019 establishing the directorate for cross-border currency movement and its functions; the July 2018 to April 2019 seizure figures against the prior year; the declarations recorded between January and April 2019; the arrests; and the joint control rooms and scanning equipment. The page carries no publication date
- Press Information Department, Government of Pakistan, press release No. 152, 18 June 2026 - revenue realised at the Peshawar enforcement collectorate from confiscated foreign currency in the 2025 to 2026 financial year, the increase on the previous year, and the total from gold, silver and foreign currency
- International Monetary Fund, Pakistan staff report, 2023 Stand-By Arrangement first review - the exchange rate pressure of early September 2023, the authorities' attribution of it to speculation and smuggling over the Afghan border, and the response of tightened border enforcement and new requirements for exchange companies
- World Bank, Afghanistan Economic Monitor, 21 November 2022 - the survey of foreign exchange availability across 144 money service providers in 48 markets tracking four currencies including the Pakistani rupee; the prohibition of foreign currency denominated domestic transactions and the regulation of money service providers; and the absence of regular central bank auctions
- World Bank, Afghanistan Economic Monitor, 30 October 2023 - the same four-currency survey a year later, and the two Ministry of Commerce notifications restricting Afghan transit trade
- World Bank, Afghanistan Economic Monitor, March 2026 - the prolonged border closures, the restructuring of trade routes through Central Asia, and the higher logistical costs
General information about currency controls and cross-border cash rules. Not financial advice, and not a recommendation of any product or institution. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.
Common questions
How much foreign currency may a traveller take out of Pakistan?
It depends where they are going. A notification of 12 December 2022 amending the Baggage Rules 2006 allows an adult travelling anywhere except Afghanistan to take out US dollars, or the equivalent in other currencies, of USD 5,000 per visit and USD 30,000 in a calendar year, with half those amounts for a person under eighteen. A separate schedule applies to Afghanistan.
Why does Afghanistan have its own schedule?
The instrument does not give a reason, but it sets the foreign-currency limits for travel there at USD 1,000 per visit and USD 6,000 a year, one fifth of the amounts allowed for everywhere else. Naming one destination in a general customs schedule is a targeted measure written in general form. The separate limits on carrying rupees themselves are set elsewhere, in the State Bank's Foreign Exchange Manual.
Does a traveller have to declare currency?
Yes, in both directions but on different terms. Any person taking foreign currency out must file a declaration before or at departure, electronically or manually at the airport, with no minimum amount. An incoming passenger must declare only where the amount exceeds USD 10,000 or its equivalent.
Who enforces this?
Pakistan Customs, through a directorate created for the purpose. Customs General Order 04/2019, dated 6 May 2019, established a directorate for cross-border currency movement, tasked with analysis and profiling of currency movements, maintaining seizure databases and coordinating with other law enforcement agencies.
Can a central bank do anything about its notes once they are abroad?
No source consulted here addresses whether an issuing central bank retains any legal authority over its banknotes outside its own territory. What the record does show is that the measures acting on Pakistani cash inside Afghanistan were taken by the authorities there, not by Pakistan.