Inward transfer of funds into India surged previous month due to early salary payments and bonuses on account of the Ramzan festival, say officials of banks and money transfer companies.
“Typically remittances increase in the month of Ramzan, prompting NRIs of the Muslim community to send money to their relatives and loved ones.
Countries such as India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are beneficiaries during this time. Our growth was 20 per cent, mostly from the Gulf countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia during the Ramzan month, largely for beneficiaries in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,” said Sudhesh Giriyan, Vice-President and Business head at Xpress Money.
According to a World Bank report released two years ago, Indian migrants to West Asia are mostly unskilled or semi-skilled workers in transport operations, construction work, and domestic services. The Gulf Co-operation Council constitutes nearly 40 per cent of the total remittances.
India received the highest remittance at $71 billion (about Rs.4.35 lakh crore), the previous year.
The Gulf sector is in the front line of sending money to India, followed by North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Of the total remittance last year, about Rs.74, 000 crore was received Kerala.
Cash rewards and huge promotions during the period further boost the remittances.
Kerala-based Federal Bank, which does considerable business from remittances, saw 12 per cent year-on-year growth in remittances during Ramzan with 5.38 lakh transactions as against 4.82 lakh last year.
The total amount remitted was Rs.4, 000 crore compared with Rs.3, 600 crore previous years.
“Regions such as Qatar (45 per cent growth), Saudi Arabia, UAE were the big remitters. Blue collared remittances are in North India mainly Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal. Now South India is seeing more of white collared remittances to Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Mumbai,” said A Surendran, General Manager & Head of International Business, Federal Bank.
High-skilled migration from India has also picked up, as per the suggestion in the World Bank report.
Mr.KR Bijimon, Chief General Manager of Muthoot Finance, said, “With lot of people aspiring to work abroad, growth in the remittance market will continue. White collared people largely use banks. However, new construction activities and oil wells will continue to see the worker community going overseas and make remittances through us.”
The company saw about 15 per cent growth the last month with 2.3 lakh of transactions averaging at approximately Rs.25,000/remittance.