THIS is apropos Ejaz Ahmad Magoon’s letter ‘Home remittances’ ( Aug17) wherein it has been said home remittances plunged by 20pc in July compared to the figure of the corresponding period of July 2015.

The State Bank has attributed this drop in home remittances to low oil prices which has hit the economies of the Gulf countries, thus resulting in the losses of thousands of jobs of expatriates, including Pakistanis.

Mr Magoon believed that remittances have dropped by 20pc due to huge increase in tax on purchase and sale of properties as announced in the 2016/17 budget.

I feel that the actual reason in the fall of home remittances in July last compared to the corresponding period of July 2015 is due to the fall of Eidul Fitr on different months, i.e. on June 18 in 2015 and on July 6 in 2016.

Readers are also aware of the fact that Pakistani expatriates used to send huge remittances to their families and Zakat for their poor relatives preceding Eidul Fitr.

However, remittances dropped in the succeeding month after Eidul Fitr as most Pakistanis celebrate Eid with their family members in Pakistan.

This is also evident from the home remittance figures of preceding and succeeding months of Eidul Fitr where we find fall of 25pc to 30pc if we compare the figure of home reimittance during the month preceding Eidul Fitr.

K.M. Shafi

Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2016