Sohni Dharti Remittance Program launched

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday launched Sohni Dharti Remittance Programme for overseas Pakistanis aimed at encouraging the use of formal channels for remittances. Describing nine million Overseas Pakistanis as the country’s asset, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday urged his economic team to focus on incentivizing and facilitating them for sending remittances and investing in the country through banking channels for a win-win situation. “I urge the economic team to keep in mind that we have to incentivize our nine million Overseas Pakistanis – an asset for the country – and ensure ease of doing business so that that they send their remittances through banking channels,” he maintained. The Prime Minister expressed these views while addressing a ceremony held here to launch Sohni Dharti Remittance Programme (SDRP), to encourage the use of formal channels for remittances. He said the Overseas Pakistanis should be treated as VIPs, because incentivizing and facilitating them besides benefitting the country will also benefit them. Advisor to PM on Finance Shaukat Train and Governor State Bank Reza Baqir also addressed the launching ceremony. Sohni Dharti Remittance Program is a point based loyalty program in which remitters and their beneficiaries will accumulate reward points by sending remittances through formal channels (SBP regulated entities) and will redeem those points at participating Public Sector Entities (PSEs) by availing their services, free of cost. A mobile App, in English and Urdu, for iOS (Apple) and Android (Google) is available for remitters to download for the purpose of registration and later on for point redemption at PSEs. Remitter can also add one beneficiary relationship and can transfer reward points to him/her for utilization. A centralized back-end system is developed and run by 1-LINK. The Prime Minister said that the government will also bring another programme under which the Overseas Pakistanis will be able to purchase houses and invest in real estate in their homeland through Roshan Digital Accounts (RDAs) in a safe and transparent manner.