The editorial board of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” has received a copy of official instructions dated 12 January 2016 explaining the procedure of buying and selling foreign currency to bank employees. The document is of quite a low quality but the text is still legible. [Below is the transcript of the document with original spelling and punctuation.]
12 January 2016
0140.870 324
To all authorized credit organizations of Turkmenistan
To all offices of Turkmenistan’s Central Bank in velayats
Pursuant to the Law “On combating money laundering and financing of terrorism” the Central Bank of Turkmenistan issues the following instructions:
Authorized credit organizations and their exchange offices, which buy and sell foreign currency in compliance with the Regulations on cash and non-cash foreign currency transactions for individuals on behalf of authorized credit organizations enacted by Order №19-о as of 7.02.2012 issued by Board Chairman of the Central Bank of Turkmenistan, registered under № 635 as of 12 March 2012 in the Ministry of Justice of Turkmenistan, must ensure that the clauses set forth in the annex are complied with when selling foreign currency to individuals effective 12 January 2016.
The CEО of the credit organization and its chief accountant are held responsible for executing these instructions.
Annex 1
With a view to tightening control over the use of foreign currency sold to individuals through credit organizations, saving foreign currency and weakening the dollarization trend in the economy, the Central Bank of Turkmenistan informs of the following:
1. Maintain the current maximum limit of foreign currency of 1000 (one thousand) US dollars a month (or its equivalent in another currency) sold to individuals.
a. Transfer foreign currency purchased by an individual to the account of his international plastic card (Visa, Mastercard) and make wire transfers in manats where an individual seeks to use the money in this account on the territory of Turkmenistan or in the national currency of the destination country if he travels overseas.
b. Accept the funds in manats which are used by an individual to purchase foreign currency only via his bank account in manats; when an individual seeks to pay in cash, documents proving the source of funds are required to be presented.
c. To prevent an individual from giving access to his foreign currency funds held in the account of the international plastic card to another individual, an overseas trip by individuals who used the foreign currency funds in the account of his international plastic card must be proved by relevant exit/entry stamps in his passport for the corresponding period. If this individual is found to have provided access to the foreign currency funds on the account of his plastic card to another individual, it must be ensured that the former is no longer allowed to purchase foreign currency.
d. To create conditions to allow members of one family to exchange funds, including in foreign currency, via their bank accounts.
e. Taking into account the growth of on-line shopping in international commerce, allow unhampered payments made from plastic cards where an individual used e-commerce for his personal use, including payments for airline tickets of foreign airlines.
2. To control the circumstances when the aforementioned is done to combine the funds by members of one family and use them for entrepreneurship, in case these foreign currency funds are transferred to one member of the family and used overseas on a regular basis, the oversight and analysis need to be conducted jointly with the tax authorities.
3. With a view to preventing attempts by individuals to deposit cash funds in the bank account and then purchase foreign currency for another individual, documents proving the source of funds to be deposited in the bank account in cash are required to be presented at the time of the transfer of funds to the bank.
4. In addition to international plastic cards, details of payments made via international money transfer systems (Western Union, Moneygram) without opening accounts need to be clarified, except in cases of receiving an equivalent of up to 1000 US dollars in manats on a monthly basis or sending this amount in foreign currency to an individual himself or his family member.
