Extra Rs. 10 per dollar for inward workers’ remittances extended to January

The Rs.10 per dollar incentive for each dollar brought in through worker remittances in December has been extended to the whole month of January, Sri Lanka’s Central Bank (CB) said on Friday.

Earlier the banking regulator offered an incentive of Rs.8 per dollar converted to rupees for the month of December, in addition to the existing Rs.2 per dollar incentive, making it a total of Rs.10 per dollar for December conversions.

On Friday, the CB said it was extending the scheme to January 2022 having considered the requests made by Sri Lankans working abroad.

“The decision to continue this additional incentive of Rs. 10 per US dollar is in response to the favourable developments observed in workers’ remittances so far during December 2021. Further, the CB has also decided to bear the transaction cost incurred by Sri Lankans working abroad up to a defined limit when remitting their money to Sri Lanka through exchange houses and / or banks,” the CB said in a statement.

Accordingly, a large segment of Sri Lankans working abroad would now be able to remit their money to Sri Lanka without any charges. The operating instructions in this regard including the date of commencement will be issued by the CB in due course.

Workers remittances have been so far dropping this year by 18 per cent at the end of November compared to the same period in 2020. In October, it fell by a staggering 50 per cent to US$317 million from $631million in the same 2020 month while in November it fell to $271.4 million, a more than 50 per cent drop from $611.7 million recorded in November 2020.