SBP rebuts reports it withheld payments to Google

Confusion continued to prevail over the central bank’s alleged decision to withhold certain payments to foreign service providers and thus put the citizens at risk of losing access to certain paid apps and services come next month. While the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has dismissed as “baseless and misleading” reports that it had withheld payments to Google, the telecom industry and other stakeholders said all was not well and there were at least some “unannounced restrictions” as the government seeks to limit dollar outflow. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the central bank said: “The fact is that in order to facilitate the domestic entities, the SBP specified certain [IT-related] services, which such entities can acquire from abroad for their own use and make foreign exchange payments there against up to $100,000 per invoice.”