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

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday 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 Rs 10,41,922 crore ($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," Ramesh said in a post on X.

He ruled 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.

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 Rs 9,32,688 crore ($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 Rs 2,10,06,50,000 crore ($250 trillion) by 2027.

The significant volume of cross-border worker remittances, the growing size of gross flows of capital, and the increasing importance of cross-border e-commerce have acted as catalysts to this growth, Das said.

"Remittances are the starting point for many emerging and developing economies, including India, to explore cross-border peer-to-peer (P2P) payments. We believe there is immense scope to significantly reduce the cost and time for such remittances," Das said in his keynote address at the conference on 'Central Banking at Crossroads'.