Jun.07, 2010, 10:54 A.M. ET

BUENOS AIRES (Dow Jones)--Argentina's government is close to publishing new foreign exchange rules designed to limit money laundering and tax evasion but may also be an attempt to restrict the flow of dollars, according to local press reports.

The government would require people or companies who buy more than a certain amount of foreign currency per year to provide proof of their income, according to reports in the Clarin and La Nacion newspapers.

The reports said the proposal is being put together by the central bank, the tax agency AFIP and the anti-money-laundering agency UIF.

A spokesman for the central bank and a spokeswoman for UIF weren't available for comment Monday, while a spokesman for the tax agency declined comment.

Argentina's government has sought in recent months to combat criticism that it hasn't done enough to tackle money laundering. Nevertheless, the newspaper reports said there's also the possibility that it could have an ulterior motive: to prevent dollars from leaving the country.

La Nacion quoted a government official who denied that the measures would restrict the flow of dollars. "It is aimed at providing more transparency to the market," the official said.

The government has been keen to use the surplus of dollars flowing into Argentina as a buffer to protect the local economy from international financial turmoil, and has built up reserves of some $48 billion at the central bank.

The main purpose of the foreign exchange reserves is to allow the central bank to manage the currency. It intervenes heavily in the local exchange market and deployed a large amount of the foreign exchange reserves during the acute stage of the financial crisis in late 2008 and early 2009 to prevent the Argentine peso from depreciating significantly.

It has also started using those reserves as part of its broader response to the recent global economic downturn. This year it assigned some $6.6 billion to pay down debts due this year, which caused a crisis in Congress, where opposition politicians claimed the government hadn't secured proper authorization.

Financial market experts said the effort probably wouldn't have much effect. La Nacion quoted Arturo Piano, a director of Argentina's Banco Piano, who said that "if you restrict the purchase of dollars, people will want them even more and that will make the price rise."