RIZWAN BHATTI

KARACHI: The inflows of home remittances posted 12 percent growth during the first quarter of this fiscal year supported by the government’s proactive policy measures to enhance the inflows through legal channels.

Cumulatively, overseas Pakistanis remitted $8 billion on account of workers’ remittances during July-Sept of FY22 over the $7.143 billion inflows arrived in the same period of last fiscal year (FY21), showing an increase of $891 million.

With $2.7 billion of inflows during September 2021, workers’ remittances continued their strong momentum and remained above $2 billion since June 2020. This is the 7th consecutive month when inflows recorded around $2.7 billion on average.

In terms of growth, remittances increased by 16.9 percent (y/y) in September 2021, while on a month-on-month basis, inflows increased by 0.5 percent.

Remittance inflows during September 2021 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia amounted to $691 million, United Arab Emirates $502 million, United Kingdom $370 million and the United States $245 million.

According to SBP, proactive policy measures by the Government and SBP to incentivize the use of formal channels, curtailed cross-border travel in the face of COVID?19, altruistic transfers to Pakistan amid the pandemic, and orderly foreign exchange market conditions have positively contributed towards the sustained improvement in remittance inflows since last year.

Recently, the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet has also approved another attractive package for overseas Pakistan to further promote the inflows of home remittance through formal channels. As per new Scheme “Sohni Dharti” overseas Pakistanis will get points against the workers’ remittances. Against these points, overseas Pakistanis can buy air tickets, insurance, passport fee, CINIC fee and purchasing from Utility Stores.