ISLAMABAD – PTI government launches new initiative for $24 billion foreignremittances.
The growth in foreign remittances that soared to $ 11.4 billionlink during theJuly-December period of FY 2020link is likely to continuefor the rest of the year due to a host governmentlink measures that maylink help achieve the targetof $ 24 billion link setfor the financial year 2020link.”
Due to this increasing trend in remittances, the target of $ 24.0 billionlink at the end ofFY2020 islikely to be achieved as the data of last five years suggests thatthe workers remitted more in thelast six months as compared to the firstsix months of the fiscal year,” said a statement issued bythe Ministry ofFinance.
The Ministry said that seasonal effect was also a leading factor inboosting remittances and it wasexpected that with the start of Ramadanlinkandthe following Eid, the flow of remittances wouldincrease as the workersgenerally sent more moneylink during the holyevents and activities.Giving a break-up of the remittances received duringthe Jul-Dec 2019 link, thestatement said thatthe remittances reached $ 11.394 billionlink as compared to $11.030 billion link inthe correspondingperiod last year, showing a growth of 3.3 percent.
Overseas Pakistanilink workersremitted $ 2.097billion in Decemberlink 2019link as compared to $ 1.819billion link duringNovember link 2019link month-to-monthbasis, the remittances increased by $277.56 millionlink in Decemberlink, with agrowth of15.25per cent, the highest recorded remittances in a month since Maylink 2019link.
Similarly,on year-to-year basis, remittances witnessed a growth of 20 percent in December link2019 link ascompared to0.14 per cent in the corresponding period last year. The sharelink of remittancesfromSaudi Arabia was at 23.0 per cent ($ 2618.0 mn), U.A.E 20.6 percent ($2349.3mn), USA link 16.6per cent ($ 1889.8 mn), U.K 15.4 ($ 1753.0 mn), other GCC countries 9.6per cent ($ 1089.20mn), Malaysialink 7.0 per cent ($798.0 mn), EU 3.0 per cent ($ 339.2 mn) and other countries 4.8per cent.Thestatement by the Ministry of Finance further said that increased efforts bythe PakistanRemittance Initiative (PRI) helped to attract higherremittances from link thePakistani linkdiasporathroughEnhancing outreach, Reimbursement of T.T.
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Charges Scheme (Free-send Model) andImprovements in Payment SystemInfrastructure etc. Similarly, visalink fee reduction fromlink theKingdom of SaudiArabia link islikely to boost up the inflows while export of manpower had alsobeenincreased from link 382,000to 625,000 during January-December 2019link, with an increaseof243,000 as compared to the corresponding period last years.
The statement further said that the governmentlink had improved itsdiplomatic relations with theGulf States which had helped restored theconfidence of foreign employers in Pakistaniworkforce.
Similarly, reimbursement of T.T. Charges Scheme had also been revised inDecember2019. Accordingly, the amount of home remittance transaction equalto and above USD link 100/-butless than USDlink 200/-(or equivalent in other currencies) would be reimbursed at SARlink 10/whilethe amount of home remittance transaction equal to and above USDlink 200/-(or equivalent inother currencies) would continue to be reimbursed at SARlink 20/-.Inorder to further encourage promotion of home remittances through formalchannels, theGovernment of Pakistan link hadre-launched the performance based scheme effective fromlink January01, 2020link in which, Rs.
1 per each incremental USDlink mobilizedover 15% growth in remittances incalendar year 2020link compared with thelevels achieved in Calendarlink year 2019link.
