Reducing time, cost of remittances from internal migrants must get attention: Jairam Ramesh

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh made the remarks even as he welcomed the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das's call for reducing the time and cost of remittances from abroad

The Congress on Monday (October 14, 2024) said there must be a focus on reducing the time and cost migrant workers incur in sending remittances to their families from one State to the other.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh made the remarks even as he welcomed the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das's call for reducing the time and cost of remittances from abroad.

"The Governor of the RBI Shaktikanta Das has very rightly called for reducing the time and cost of remittances. Such inflows into our economy from Indians living abroad will amount to around $124 billion this year, making them the second largest source of external financing after service exports.

"At the same time it should be recalled that 3 out of 10 Indians are internal migrants of some form or the other. Hence, policy focus should also be on reducing time and cost of internal remittances — that is from migrant workers in one State sending savings to their families residing in other States," Mr. Ramesh said in a post on X.

He rued that data on internal remittances, “sadly, is not collected systematically.” “Some evidence suggest that such inter-State remittances may be a tenth of such remittances from abroad,” he said.

“A study done some years back estimated that remittances from Kerala to other States was about a third of the remittances the southern State receives from other countries,” the Congress leader said, adding that less than half of such proceeds flow through formal institutional channels.

Mr. Das on Monday made a case for reducing time and cost of overseas remittances, which are important for developing economies, such as India.

According to the World Migration Report 2024 released by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), India's remittances surged to $111 billion last year, surpassing all other nations'. According to a Bank of England projection, the value of global cross-border payments is estimated to surpass $250 trillion by 2027.

Published - October 14, 2024 05:24 pm IST