KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday made attractive the inflow of home remittances through formal channels and announced incentives for banks.
According to the central bank each $100 and above remitted through banking channels would get disbursement of Saudi Riyal 10/.
Please refer to EPD Circular Letter No. 08 dated May 24, 2016.
The SBP said that the amount of home remittance transaction equal to and above USD 100/- but less than USD 200/- (or equivalent in other currencies) shall be reimbursed at SAR 10/-.
The amount of Home Remittance transaction equal to and above USD 200/- (or equivalent in other currencies) shall continue to be reimbursed at SAR 20/-.
Earlier in May 2016, the following circular was issued by the SBP:
In order to further streamline the process of Reimbursement of TT Charges Scheme, the banks shall comply with the following instructions with immediate effect:
Submission of Claims
Banks shall submit their claims of the preceding month for Reimbursement of TT Charges against Home Remittances on the proforma (Annexure-A) in soft form (MS Office Excel) on Compact Disk (CD) along with covering letter to SBP Banking Services Corporation (SBP-BSC), Karachi Office by 20th day of the next month.
Eligible Transactions
Home Remittance transactions shall be eligible for Reimbursement of TT Charges subject to the following conditions:
The bank and the correspondent entity have not charged their customers any fee or other charges at any stage for sending or receiving the Home Remittances.
The amount of Home Remittance transaction is not below USD 200/- or equivalent in other currencies.
Only one transaction shall be eligible for the Reimbursement of TT Charges irrespective of the number of transactions sent from the same remitter to same beneficiary on the same day.
The transaction contains accurate identity of both remitter and beneficiary.
Reimbursement Rate
The Reimbursement rate per eligible Home Remittance transaction is Saudi Riyal 20/-.
Certification of Claims
All claims submitted to SBP-BSC, Karachi Office under Reimbursement of TT Charges Scheme shall be audited by the bank’s Internal Audit Department to verify that the claims are in conformity with the instructions issued by SBP and SBP-BSC on the subject from time to time.
Further, a certificate to this effect by the bank’s Head, Internal Audit Department shall be submitted certifying as follows:
The bank and the overseas correspondent entity have not charged its customers any fee or other charges at any stage for Home Remittances.
The claims contain accurate identities of both remitter and beneficiary.
No claim/ transaction below the prescribed limit of USD 200/- or equivalent in other currencies has been included in the claim form.
No transaction has been splitted to avail undue benefit under the scheme.
In case a claim is found to contain transactions below USD 200/- or equivalent in other currencies or split transactions detected at any stage, SBP / SBP-BSC shall have the right to recover such amount from our current account maintained with them.
Reimbursement claim being submitted has been duly audited by our Internal Audit Department.
In another circular issued on Friday, the SBP also announced incentives for banks to encourage remittances through formal banking channel.
The SBP encouraged banks to market the home remittances and the central bank would grant Re1 for each dollar remitted in case the remittance grew by 15 percent per annum.
The government relaunched the performance based scheme effective from January 01, 2020.
