Pakistani expats being convinced to transmit money via banks: Bukhari

ISLAMABAD: Focusing to increase precious foreign exchange, the incumbent government plans to strengthen the banking channels to convince Pakistani expatriates send remittances to their near and dear ones through legal means which would ultimately discourage the other means of transmission.

Currently around more than 15 billion dollars are being remitted through the Hundi system which is the main impediment in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.

Thanks to the Pakistani expatriates who have remitted their hard earned money of around 7419.98 million US dollar to Pakistan during first quarter of this fiscal year.

The vision of the government can only be materialized when there is an increase in remittances through easy and expatriate-friendly banking channels.

“Every year Overseas Pakistanis are sending over US$ 20 billion through proper channel, while over US$ 15 billion are being sending through hundi in the country,” Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Syed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari told APP.

He said the department was taking various measures for increased use of banking channels by removing red tapism in sending remittances to boost the foreign reserves, adding that they were holding consultations with relevant stakeholders to ease complicated transaction processes.

Bukhari said they had introduced bio-metric verification system to ensure the better communication between Ministry and the Pakistani Diaspora working abroad.

He said they would link the facilities, being provided to their families including housing and schooling, with use of legal channels for remitting their money.

He said they had directed their community welfare attaches for sensitizing the Pakistani diaspora about using the legal banking channels for transfer of their money to uplift the national economy.

Highlighting some issues, Muhammad Irfan, a Pakistani expatriate working in Saudi Arabia Monday urged removal of hiccups in sending their money through banks, prompting them to use other ways which saved their time and extra charges.

He also demanded to lift taxes on sending remittances which took a chunk of their hard-earned money.

Moreover, the future economic indicators predict a better situation in next year as workers remittances have increased by 15.14 per cent in the first quarter of Fiscal-year 2019 against the same period of the last FY 2018, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data shows.

The remittances reach to around 7419.98 million US dollar in this period which was earlier recorded to 6,444.46 million US dollar.

In October this year, the inflows stood at 2 billion US dollars which was 37.7 per cent higher than September 2018 when overseas Pakistanis sent around 1.4 billion dollars.

The new World Bank report, “Regional Trends in Migration and Remittance Flows”, released on Saturday, says that the remittances to Pakistan is expected to touch the figure of $20.9 billion in 2018, which is 6.9pc of GDP.