With rupee touching a low of Rs 58.56 against dollar today, the financial burden on students going abroad for higher studies will go up by up to 20 per cent, Assocham has said.

“Since March 2012, the rupee has weakened by 15 per cent, increasing the cost burden on students planning to study overseas. If the rupee touches 60 level, Indian students who propose to go abroad to study have to pay 15-20 per cent more,” Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.

Besides rise in education expenses, the students will see an overall expenditure going up on their food, stay and other living expenses due to falling rupee, he added.

The chamber said that out of 6—8 lakh students who go abroad for studies from India every year, about 1 lakh go to the US, followed by Britain and Australia.

Rupee had touched the life-time low of 58.96 against the US dollar on Tuesday.

Recently, the Reserve Bank liberalised norms for repatriation of exports proceed and also asked units in the special economic zones (SEZs) to bring back export earnings to India within 12 months from the date of shipment.

Assocham said the Finance Ministry should continue to take more measures to encourage capital inflows for the rupee to gain strength.

Besides, it said, RBI should actively sell dollar rather aggressively as a measure.

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