THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There has been a drastic 65% reduction in the transfer of money to Kerala from overseas through authorized foreign exchange dealers from Jan to May in 2020. Commenting on the trend, state planning board vice-chairman VK Ramachandran said it was an indicator of the impact of Covid-19 on nonresident Keralites.
The economic review estimated the average monthly remittances through private receipts to state in 2020-21 will be Rs 8,756 crore.
“Some of the emigrants rely on private money exchange dealers for transferring cash. As many of them have lost their jobs and returned to Kerala, there has been a drastic reduction in transfers through exchange dealers. As per the information gathered from authorized foreign exchange dealers, there has been a reduction of 65% in private transfer from Jan-May 2020, almost to the extent of Rs 5,691 crore in absolute terms,” the report said.
However, with regard to NRI deposits, there was an increase in the amount deposited by emigrants. According to the report, the detailed received from statelevel bankers committee showed that the total deposits in NRI accounts in commercial banks in Kerala was Rs 1.99 lakh crore in Dec 2019. It increased to Rs 2.11 lakh crore by the month of June 2020. The deposits increased by 0.12 lakh crore from January to June 2020.
The report estimated the amount of remittances –transferred to Kerala in 2018-19 through authorized foreign exchange dealers – at Rs 95,623 crore; Rs 1,46,912 crore was transferred through NRI deposits in banks. Thus, simple monthly average of NRI deposits in banks in Kerala was Rs 12,243 crore and private transfers were Rs 7,969 crore.
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