Naveed Ahmad Khan
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhatr has announced Home Remittance Incentives Scheme worth 80 billion rupees to channelize remittances from overseas Pakistanis.
Addressing media in Islamabad on Friday, she said twenty out of eighty billion rupees have been released immediately for this purpose.
Giving details of this scheme, the Minister said the government will cover all the charges to be incurred on telegraphic transfers of funds worth 100 dollars or above by the overseas Pakistanis. She said this will enable remitters to send money free off cost.
Dr Shamshad Akhtar further said that the government will pay twenty Saudi Riyals to participatory banks for providing this facility to the remitters.
Under another category of the scheme named Sohni Dharti, remitters can accumulate their points to redeem them for getting extra benefits.
She said the government will also incentivize the marketing for home remittances. She said the scheme has also designed lucky draws for the remitters who will utilize legal channels to send their money at home.
Reassuring the support of banking channels for home remittances, the Minister urged the overseas Pakistanis to get befits of this scheme by utilizing legal channels of sending money to their loved ones.
In August 2023, Pakistan’s foreign worker remittances clocked in at $2.1 billion, 3.1% higher on a month-on-month basis when compared to $2.03 billion in July.
On a yearly basis, the monthly inflow of Pakistan’s remittances registered a decline of 24% as it stood at $2.7 billion in the same month of the previous year, according to the data released by the central bank.