In all, worldwide remittances -- including those to high-income countries -- will reach $406 billion in the current calendar year.
Remittances to India have gone up in the festive season of Diwali and Eid despite the Indian rupee gaining in strength.
Led by a new generation of entrepreneurs, India's family offices are shifting from traditional investments in physical and tangible assets like real estate to investing in technology, healthcare, and retail stocks. This new wave of family offices is engaging in stock market investments, including pre-IPO placements and secondary market operations. "Born into a world of technology, the next generation, especially those born after 2000, view technology as equally crucial as finance for running a business.
Mobile remittance services, which have done wonders in other emerging market economies like Kenya and the Philippines, are expected to change the retail payment landscape in the country that has over 600 million mobile subscribers and 300 million bank account holders.
Email alarm made government close arbitrage window
Private sector lender ICICI Bank on Monday launched I-Express, an instant cross-border money transfer option for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs).
India is the largest recipient of remittances in the world, with $71 billion sent last year.
Cyprus, in accordance with the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund and European Union for a Euro 10-billion bailout package, had agreed to impose a tax on bank deposits in the country.
Modi to push for low transaction cost for remittances at G20
Indian workers' remittances to the country from abroad have soared considerably over the years to touch $23 billion in 2004, according to World Bank statistics.
Indians remitted close to $2 billion in November under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) liberalised remittance scheme (LRS), latest data released by the central bank showed. Outward remittances under the scheme jumped 29 per cent to $1.99 billion compared to $1.54 billion in the year-ago month. Sequentially, outward remittances under the scheme were up about 3.5 per cent.
India's key exports to the UAE include gems and jewellery, petroleum products, metals, machinery and basmati rice.
India is the largest recipient of remittances in the world.
'At this moment you cannot give her asylum because if you do, then you are directing public anger against India.'
Hopes soar on currency gaining more if Modi becomes the Prime Minister.
Despite difficult working conditions, Indians are still seeking jobs in Gulf countries
rediffGURU Samkit Maniar answers readers' personal income tax queries
In the first such collaboration for India, the country's flagship payments platform, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and Singapore's PayNow payment system have launched a real-time cross-border payment linkage system. The linkage, which was launched by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi and Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday, was kicked off by a live cross-border transaction between Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das and Monetary Authority of Singapore managing director Ravi Menon, using mobile phones.
Credit card payments for foreign travel will be brought under the purview of the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) of the Reserve Bank, to ensure that such expenses do not escape TCS (Tax Collection at Source). While moving the Finance Bill 2023 for consideration and passage in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Reserve Bank has been asked to look into ways to bring credit card payments on foreign tours under the LRS. "It has been represented that payments for foreign tours through a credit card are not being captured under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) and such payments escape tax collection at source (TCS)," she said.
The cost of remittances across various modes has come down significantly.
The Enforcement Directorate has upgraded its Look out Circular (LC) issued against Byju's founder and CEO Byju Raveendran in connection with a FEMA probe, seeking to stop him for going abroad. The earlier such alert meant that immigration authorities had to just intimate the agency about his movements through various ports. Official sources said that the over an year old LC was revised sometime back in light of investors' concerns and ongoing adjudication of a FEMA contravention case against Raveendran and some others.
This is the first time a bank has introduced a real-time international account to account money transfer service via mobile phones anywhere in the world, a statement here said.
The Union finance ministry on Thursday issued a clarification on the changes in FEMA rules which brings overseas international credit card spending under the RBI's liberalised remittance scheme (LRS). Here's how it affects you.
The central government has given banks and credit card entities six to eight months to put in place the requisite reporting mechanism and related features to collect tax at source on international credit card transactions, a senior bureaucrat told Business Standard. According to the bureaucrat, the plan to bring overseas credit cards under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) has not been mothballed and is simply being deferred so that banks get adequate time to get the system up and running. The official expects the reporting mechanism to be ready in the given time, and the rule could be implemented in the next financial year (2024-25, or FY25).
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has launched a preliminary investigation or a pre-open inquiry into alleged violations related to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) in the Paytm Payments Bank case, according to sources in the know. The probe follows serious concerns raised by the Reserve Bank of India on multiple violations by the Paytm bank, which is a joint venture between One97 Communications, which is the parent company of Paytm, and the group's founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
'Investing abroad helps mitigate currency risk for foreign-currency denominated goals, such as children's higher education and international travel.'
'Exposure to small and midcap stocks exceeded desired levels in many portfolios, prompting rebalancing.'
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) decision on Wednesday to relax restrictions on banks operating in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) related to the repatriation of idle funds in foreign currency accounts (FCA) could give a fillip to trading in foreign stocks at the GIFT City.
The senior counsel appearing for the former MP claimed she was being "hounded", and information on issuance of summons to her by the agency was published by the media even before she received it.
The government said remittances from abroad will not attract service tax, putting to rest the concerns raised in view of new tax norms.
Remittances by artists and for advertisements, royalty payments, purchase of trademarks, commission to real estate agents and health insurance from abroad would no longer require RBI clearance.
Several mutual funds (MFs) have recently approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as they renew efforts to increase their overseas investment limit. In June 2022, the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) permitted MFs to invest in foreign stocks within the aggregate mandated limit of $7 billion after a correction in stocks. One of the proposals shared with the RBI is to link MFs' foreign investment limit to the country's foreign exchange reserves.
A portfolio can be rebalanced by either selling a portion of the outperforming asset class or by buying more of the underperforming asset class.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday attached 17 properties of Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali in a terror funding case, the agency said.
Singh has also sought details from the Finance Ministry on the issue, said Chandy who raised objections before the Prime Minister over the reported move by the Government to levy the tax on the money of Indians working abroad.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday alleged that Hero MotoCorp executive chairperson Pawan Kant Munjal used foreign currency issued in the name of others for his personal expenditure abroad to "override" RBI rules and attached his assets worth Rs 24.95 crore as part of a money laundering investigation. Three immovable properties (in the form of lands) of Munjal located in Delhi have been provisionally attached under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the central agency said in a statement.
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