Recession
hits remittances of overseas Indians
Our
Thiruvananthapuram Correspondent
Are
Non-resident Indians (NRIs) losing the role of the main
foreign exchange earner of the country? If their remittance
to Indian banks during the last financial year is any indication,
the answer is ‘yes’.
The
recession being faced by the world, especially developed
economies like the US, the UK, Canada and Germany, is one
of the major reasons that have made the NRIs’ pay packet
lighter.
The
NRI investment in avenues like stocks, futures trading,
real estate and gold has also contributed for the dip in
bank remittances.
It is
estimated that the country registered a drop of 15 per cent
in the NRI remittance during the last financial year.
In Kerala,
which accounts for a major chunk among the states, the total
remittance during the year went down to Rs 29,889 crore
from Rs 33,303 crore, leaving a gap of Rs 3,414 crore.
But
in the previous year, the remittance had gone up by Rs 2,632
crore. It has registered a negative growth of 10.25 per
cent over the previous period.
The
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has observed that there has
been a wide fluctuation in NRI remittances for the past
few years. The apex bank is of the view that if the present
recession spells continues, the flow of the NRI money to
the country’s banks will further narrow down.
The
RBI sources told this paper that it had taken a serious
view of the situation and warned commercial banks that the
trend would seriously affect their performance and therefore,
they should take concrete steps to attract more NRI fund.
Despite
the slowdown in NRI remittance, the total deposits and domestic
deposits have registered a substantial growth in the state.
The total deposits jumped to Rs 1.05 lakh crore from Rs
91,697 crore in the previous year. During the year, the
credit-deposit ratio has improved marginally by 1.29 per
cent to 71.39 per cent.
