PM Khan approves incentives to facilitate remittances from overseas Pakistanis

Sanaullah Khan Published October 22, 2018

Prime Minister Imran Khan chairs a meeting in this file photo.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday gave his approval to several incentives aimed at attracting more remittances from overseas Pakistanis.

Khan was chairing a follow-up meeting regarding facilitating overseas Pakistanis, particularly to ease and incentivise home remittances through legal channels, before he departed for Saudi Arabia to attend an investment conference.

According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office, Khan during the meeting allowed the State Bank of Pakistan and its authorised dealers (banks) to "implement Business to Customer (B2C) and Customer to Business (C2B) transactions through foreign correspondent entities under their existing home remittance agency arrangements".

Incentives regarding B2C transactions:

Freelance and information systems services have been allowed to transact up to $1,500 per individual per month.
Transaction services other than computer and information services have also been allowed to transact up to $1,500 per individual per month.
Pensioners can now receive up to Rs250,000 per individual per month.

For C2B transactions:

Residents can easily receive direct payments from overseas Pakistanis to pay for utility bills, education fees of Higher Education Commission-accredited institutions, superstores, insurance companies, credit card bills, etc.
Remittances received by "reputed" real estate builders/developers and housing societies from overseas Pakistanis on account of purchase of property such as residential and commercial houses, plots, flats and buildings, etc. have also been allowed except remittances for equity/participation in an enterprise.

The prime minister also approved a proposal for the government to pay an incentive of Rs2 for the use of mobile wallet on each transaction of $1 remittance as airtime; this amount was previously one rupee.

For foreign exchange companies and banks that bring in 15 per cent more remittances than the previous financial year, an incentive of Rs1 will also be granted against each $1 incremental remittance transaction.

Khan has also greenlighted a survey of Pakistani workers employed abroad, especially in Middle Eastern countries, to record their feedback on further improving the home remittance processes.

Terming overseas Pakistanis as "our greatest asset", the premier promised that his government will facilitate them in every manner.

The meeting was attended by ministers, advisers, secretaries, the State Bank governor, chairman Federal Board of Revenue, chairman Nadra and other senior officers.

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Pakistan

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ExPat

Oct 22, 2018 08:36pm

And in plain English, this means...?

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Truth Sayer

Oct 22, 2018 08:53pm

Excellent work by Imran Khan

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De facto politician

Oct 22, 2018 08:57pm

Wonderful incentives.

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Mind

Oct 22, 2018 09:03pm

Where is the ‘incentive’ part??

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M. Saeed

Oct 22, 2018 09:03pm

I am a former overseas Pakistani who worked for over 25 years abroad and never had any incentives for they were were not there, or were all inoperative. The most important investment that I expected was in savings foreign currency in National Savings type of arrangement because I wanted to save for bout 15 years so that I could have something substantial at the time when my children would have grown to marriageable age. Otherwise, historically, Rupee was losing its purchasing power much more than what the savings in Rupees after 15 years would have left. Therefore, the New Government must think about providing savings benefits in foreign currencies so that the savings could really produce desired results for the overseas Pakistanis.

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Haider

Oct 22, 2018 09:03pm

Zardari was right. What do they know about ruining I mean running a country. I'm sure we all miss the good old prosperous days of PPP and PMLN.

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SHAK

Oct 22, 2018 09:08pm

this means ?>

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Jamal Ahmed

Oct 22, 2018 09:09pm

What are these incentives? Can anyone explain the jargon?

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Mansur Ul Haque

Oct 22, 2018 09:18pm

We need foreign exchange to meet our foreign obligation. Borrowing from IMF or friendly countries will not be free. In addition to agreeing to the terms and conditions of the lenders we have to pay the mark up on borrowings. We have to pay high mark up if we issue foreign currency bonds. It will be appropriate if we start paying an amount of RS. 1 in addition to official exchange rate on one dollar. This additional amount to convert their foreign currency will be incentive for the lenders of money. In future they will send their money through official channel.

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sri

Oct 22, 2018 09:18pm

They want Pakistani rupee to further depress before they can remitt.

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DeltaEcho

Oct 22, 2018 09:44pm

Can anyone explain this? It totally beats me all ends up.

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Shafiq Khan

Oct 22, 2018 09:46pm

What is the government going to do to ease the life of the workers in the Arab lands?

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Khan

Oct 22, 2018 09:55pm

Make the process simple and easy for overseas to send money while keeping eye on black sheeps

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asif

Oct 22, 2018 09:59pm

@Truth Sayer Please elaborate to me and other overseas Pakistanis why I bother to send more dollars? would it removes all the hurdles? all the assurance that our money will be safe in banks? no more devaluation of Rs? respect for us and families when we land there?

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Oct 22, 2018 10:00pm

Good small steps to facilitate remittances from overseas Pakistanis, but much more needs to done; (1) regulate all banks in Pakistan and prohibit them from charging outrageous fees. There needs to be a limit imposed of bank fee as per international norms; (2) eliminate withholding tax on bank transactions by overseas Pakistanis because most of them pay tax in the country of their residence and are not tax payers in Pakistan; (3) create and offer US dollar investment vehicles and time limited fixed deposit accounts backed by capital protection laws and insurance provided by the state bank of Pakistan

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Jalbani Baloch

Oct 22, 2018 10:21pm

Expat cannot be deceived anymore. These types or similar incentives and schemes have been offered by previous governments, which proved short-lived and the expat suffered a lot. One of my friend, who lived in Saudi Arabia for better part of his life, on his visit to Pakistan, opted to pass through immigration counter, which was especially dedicated to facilitate the expats sending remittances to Pakistan through banking channel, stayed at the counter unattended till all other passengers passed through ordinary immigration counters. The officer at the other ordinary counter told him that the immigration officer, who deals with expat counters has gone to say his morning prayers, so he advised him to come to his counter and get clearance. There are many other instances, which weaken the trust of expatriates in the government schemes, which are only designed for political gains and publicity with no or hardly any benefit to the expatriates.

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Ramay.

Oct 22, 2018 10:23pm

What is the benifit of this alien incentive to remittances of the overseas Pakistanis.Can somebody explain?? I live in middle east my money is deducted when I send thru Pakistani banks,500 Rs at every one hundered thousands I send, why this punishment??

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Amjad Durrani Engineer USA

Oct 22, 2018 10:30pm

The sitting government needs to provide these expatriates mostlly labor class with better facilities on arrival at home airports and access to missions abroad whenever needed. Coupled with announced incentives, if the sitting government, provides these mostly labor class expatriates a separate window operation on arrival and availability of complaint outlet in case they are aggrieved will play miracles. Let us see how these how these incentives workout in the long run. One thing is sure that if the government owns its expatriots and give them space which they deserve, it iis most likely to bring positive results to our falling FE reserves.

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Irfan

Oct 22, 2018 10:33pm

@Haider , thanks for sharing joke of the century "good old & prosperous days of PPP & PMLN"

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Abdul Sheikh

Oct 22, 2018 10:41pm

Only the PM can understand these incentives.

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Life

Oct 22, 2018 10:42pm

Remittances to so called reputable real estate builders will ensure money laundering and increase the prices of real estate to an unimaginable level. All the other facilitations will have no effect unless hundi and hawala are curbed. If an individual is used to of non-banking channel these incentives are still useless and all others who remit through banking channels are still going to send through this route. All in all, I do not see any much use of this scheme.

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salman

Oct 22, 2018 10:44pm

Where are the incentives?? On the same token the relevant ministry please be aware that thousands of Pakistani are repatriating back home and most of them are facing serious delays to get their ESB, and in hundreds cases these people are forced to leave without their financial dues. Please raise this issue with Middle East governments and instruct local consulates to assign a team to tackle these issues and assist the people to get their rights before leaving.

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American Raja

Oct 22, 2018 10:44pm

How about giving excellent school system to our kids back home. It is impossible to get good schooling for our children without having to pay huge fees in Private Schools.

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Ajaz

Oct 22, 2018 10:45pm

The policies being suggested are no where near to what is needed. These are sticking plasters. We need a change of direction for the country to be more reliant on its own resources and hard work. Stop begging. You are harming our dignity.

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Ash2000

Oct 22, 2018 10:51pm

@ExPat - Nothing.

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Ash2000

Oct 22, 2018 10:51pm

Does not sounds like any plan?

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Qaisar

Oct 22, 2018 10:58pm

Is there any one sensible person in the finance ministry to explain the PM that if Pakistani rupee depreciates continuously (like happening currently) people will not sent remittance and they will wait. Even if they send, they will send minimal. Government has to make sure that rupee stablises or appreciates to get more remittances from overseas Pakistanies.

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Danish

Oct 22, 2018 11:06pm

What kind of.incentive is.this.that overseas person.deposit.foreign excange in his.own account need unnecessary paper work.to show . He is bringing foreign in country but gov is refusing to deposit in account he has.no option to go to money charger and.money move money somewhere else. Who is loosing the foreign exchange the Gov.

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optimist

Oct 22, 2018 11:06pm

I have written to overseas Pakistani foundation and minister for overseas Pakistanis Mr. Zulfi Bukhari. So far he has ignored my emails or it may have gone to his spam. The minister needs to launch a complaint center for land disputes arising out of POA.

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Qaisar

Oct 22, 2018 11:07pm

Please set up a bright idea commission to gather bright ideas from Pakistanis to fight the current challanges faced by Pakistan.

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Dr. Malhi

Oct 22, 2018 11:17pm

Sounds quite complicated. Need to learn from UK. They are great at simplifying government policies into for common man in a language simple enough that masses can easily understand. For example, I as an expat need to know how these policies can benefit me or encourage me when I try to send money back home to my parents. This and other such case scenarios should be written to help people understand this.

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M1 Jamal

Oct 22, 2018 11:21pm

Really we are naive and without putting a plug on the demand of Foreign currency being met by Hawala, we cannot increase the supply thru banking channels.If Hawala requirement is there, the part supply will go there too.

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Keenobserver

Oct 22, 2018 11:21pm

Thank you Mr PM for your personal attention. It is my hope that the challenges we face insucj transactions can be simplified further.

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Thinker.

Oct 22, 2018 11:24pm

Too little, too late. Hardly any real incentive here.

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Hasan Ali Rizvi Ottawa Canada

Oct 22, 2018 11:24pm

Sorry to say that these scheme are empty mind, B2C and C2B have nothing is empty box without any thing, l am as banker, and let know these PTI people that they have to issue some Bond in foreign currencies, like US$,Euro and GBP, for the period of 5 and 10 yrs, value decided and locked profit on the date funds received with Profit in Rs. 15% pm linked with National saving certificate, 2) a scheme in saving account with 4 or 5% profit, if these PTI members understood they should not announce this scheme, there are no finance minister was not there, what ever mentioned in these are nothing, only on papers, we are getting these before, we have been cheated by PPP and PMLN who totally eat our foreign currencies accounts in 1998. PTI where is your finance minister absent in this meeting. give some solid scheme not empty.

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Oct 22, 2018 11:33pm

These are not incentives really. It's bascially a common sense approvach by govenrment to allow more remittance into Pakistan. I think there were too many restrictions before ( and still have) but it's a good step nonethe less. Also Pakistan has to learn lesson from India or Philipine and create an educated workforce ( IT, medical are in demand abroad). Manpower is our biggest assets in Paksitan so Paksitan shoudl use it very wisely. Instead of sending labor force we should train our doctors, nurses, IT experts abroad which will send much more foreign reserves to Pakistna.

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Rehmat Ali

Oct 22, 2018 11:55pm

12 years I worked in Gulf As Electrical Foreman,In 2014 I suffered from Brain Hemorrhage. Luckily Survived.In 2016 I returned due to health reasons. 12 years while working abroad I sent money through Bank to bank for only to put my part in enhancing foreign reserves in the country.Now since last two years I am in Pakistan.No job.All door closed for me due to age and health factors.Now I look, here is no mechanism that pull me out from difficult times.

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Najum

Oct 23, 2018 12:04am

$1500 per month per individual. What a joke.

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Abbas

Oct 23, 2018 12:04am

No need to reinvent the wheel .. provide a better exchange rate for transfers into the country and make them faster .... what I read in the article seems confusing and complicated

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Anand

Oct 23, 2018 12:47am

I will send my remittance of much needed tabdeeli & good luck.

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Logical

Oct 23, 2018 01:01am

@ExPat - It means that you need to learn English and educate your children also!

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Hakim

Oct 23, 2018 01:47am

Instead of incentivizing the brokers why doesn't government pay a bunus of rs 1 for every dollar sent to Pakistan

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King Nas

Oct 23, 2018 01:51am

@ExPat depending on where you live, you may not experience this. But there is not direct line for remittances from Canada to Pakistan. none of our national banks have any direct or indirect channels here. Services like Paypal are not allowed or don't have proper regulatory frame work to function. It is really painful and expensive process that discourages overseas Pakistanis from sending money through legal channels. I usually pay a $5 surcharge plus 2% "conversion" rate, plus whatever margins dealers make in currency conversion in Pakistan. So typically i lose somewhere around 3-5% of my remittance to middle men. On top of that i have to go personally And to make things worse for Pakistan, they don't get USD or CDN. they get PKR. Vs. Indians, they can open an NRI account here, that is accessible by their family directly from India, no transaction fee. It is in CDN and USD. Now consider someone who buys property in Pakistan and has to do this every month for payments?

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Nadir

Oct 23, 2018 02:05am

More rubbish from PTI. Funny they are not blaming anyone else. Come back Ishaq Dar all is forgiven

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Nawaz

Oct 23, 2018 02:12am

Who will understand this technical language and jargon? None of the incentives would benefit a common remitter who sends money on a regular basis to support the family. Those at the helm of affairs don't have a clue why overseas Pakistanies are not sending money through banking channels. Some of the reasons are as under: Better exchange rates offered by private money exchangers. Remittance fees charged by the banks. Difficulties in setting up and operating online accounts to send money. Speedy transfer of funds by private money exchangers. Payments are sometimes stopped by banks pending an up-to-date evidence of identity. If remittances exceed a certain amount of money within a specified period of time, then remitters have to provide additional evidence of funds especially in western countries. Some people don't want to send money through banking channels for obvious reasons. No incentive in the form of generous baggage allowance for overseas Pakistanies.

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Abdul Ghaffar

Oct 23, 2018 02:58am

Let’s it simple how does it benefit me as a NRP. All NRP to register under a program where for every USD inward remittance the government creates a systematic investment plan in PKR of a small value which is vested over a period of five years or at every usd10k. Let a professional insurance firm manage it along with end of life benefits. The state liability is deferred over a period

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Azam Chowdhry

Oct 23, 2018 03:04am

What is the incentive??? Money gram charges $8 up to 1k transfer fee in USA. Are incentives going to cost less than that???

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Kaleem

Oct 23, 2018 04:26am

Can someone please explain in simple English what these incentives are?

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Syed Anjum Ali

Oct 23, 2018 04:27am

PM Imran seems to be totally monomaniacal and obssessed with overseas Pakistanis. Depending on them cannot be sustainable in the long term. Only developing industry and trade capabilities within Pakistan can lead to prosperity.

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Bismill

Oct 23, 2018 04:38am

What about if overseas Pakistanis want to transfer their saving and property sale money which is in the form of Pakistani Rs to overseas in the form of foreign exchange like UK pond, Aust $, USA $ etc. PM also solve this problem - there are tremendous hurdles and problems in transferring the saving money and property sale money (Rs) legally to overseas in the form of UK pond, Aust $, USA $ etc.

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Farhan

Oct 23, 2018 04:38am

Why limit the freelance to $1500? Just collect income tax and remove all limits.

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Chacha

Oct 23, 2018 04:59am

@De facto politician which one?

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Farooq Siddiqui

Oct 23, 2018 05:01am

I want to transfer USD in one annual transaction, to my mother's account, so if it is more than 2000 USD then what will be the benefit?

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Oct 23, 2018 05:06am

Why only overseas Pakistanis are greatest asset. Are local Pakistanis not working for the country?

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Shaukat

Oct 23, 2018 05:40am

@De facto politician , and what that incentive is?

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A Razzak

Oct 23, 2018 06:05am

Govt to think about giving Rs 1,000 on every $1,000 remittance if exchanged thru interbank rates- Remittance should be considered as white without filing of tax. Overseas Pk can’t file tax due to uneasy access of

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Dr Mahmood Ahmad

Oct 23, 2018 06:09am

This is a complicated presentation from the bureaucratic resistance movement which the lady person cannot comprehend or is meaningless. We want to send foreign currency with no transaction fees, better rates than open market and the ability to preserve in foreign currency accounts. Something which is currently available to HSBC account holders who have accounts in different countries. We should have an online portal to link between our frequently transacted bank accounts for instant transfers.

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Khan

Oct 23, 2018 06:16am

No remittance for private housing schemes until the overseas pakistani confidence is built up. There are too many scams.

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anwarsher

Oct 23, 2018 06:20am

Please tell the PM to approve reduction in power tariffs.

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Nasir

Oct 23, 2018 06:48am

@Qaisar Bright Idea commission setup was to get really good Ideas. But our PM took the decision of kicking out the brightest Mr Atif Mian to keep people living in black holes happy

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Ilyas

Oct 23, 2018 07:33am

@Haider it was prosperous for corrupt mafia and seems you are the one among them

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Shabbir

Oct 23, 2018 09:45am

Is this really the much talked about incentive?

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Yousuf Khan

Oct 23, 2018 09:53am

Agree with ExPat, what does it mean. What i would like is that i send Riyals to my bank account in Pakistan and when i draw it in Pakistan, i get riyals or rupees as per current exchange rates, otherwise i will keep my riyals with me and precisely send to take with as much i need immediately.

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Arif

Oct 23, 2018 10:04am

A positive Step.

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