The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday (November 05) announced that total remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis through the Roshan Digital Account (RDA) have reached USD 2.677 billion in October 2021, news sources reported. The overseas Pakistanis sent USD 266 million during the month of October which is 10% lower than September on a month-on month basis.
Read: Roshan Apna Ghar scheme launched for Overseas Pakistanis
As per the details released, a total of USD 1.834 billion, or about 69 % of the total funds sent by Non-Resident Pakistanis (NRPs) in the previous 14 months were invested in Naya Pakistan Certificates (NPCs). The increased investment in NPC is primarily motivated by the strong return on investment of up to 7% on the dollar and 11% on the rupee.
Furthermore, under Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s instruction, the SBP and commercial banks would enable NRPs to participate in the Pakistan housing sector as well as other sectors such as automobiles. To encourage more investments from overseas, the government has given tax exemption on investment and streamlined the tax filing regime under the RDA.
Read: Remittance inflow via Roshan Digital Accounts crosses USD 2 bn mark: SPB
According to the SBP data, all of these reforms have resulted in a total of 273,411 accounts being opened by Pakistanis residing in 175 different countries since the launch of the RDA scheme. In the month of October alone, there was a 9.92 % increase in the number of new accounts.