Indians working abroad remitted $25.2 billion in the first three quarters of the 2012-13 financial year for family maintenance and other purposes. This was a 9.6 per cent rise in comparison to the corresponding period of 2011-12.
Workers sent over $8 billion home every month during the period under review, as per provisional RBI data on India’s “invisibles” – business transactions that occur with no exchange of tangible goods – for the third quarter. In comparison, remittances during the April-December period of 2011-12, averaged around $7.7 billion per quarter.
Remittances from abroad are classified as “private transactions” in the invisibles data. Local withdrawals and redemptions from non-resident deposits were another category of invisible trade by private individuals. These transactions amounted to $23.6 billion during the first three quarters last fiscal, averaging around $7.8 billion per quarter.
One of the interesting revelations from the data is that around $44 million was of gold and silver was brought through passenger baggage in April-December, 2012. This was an increase from $35 million in the corresponding period of the previous year.
Personal gifts and donations to charitable and religious institutions in India by private individuals also rose 10.3 per cent to $2 billion in the first three quarters of 2012-13.