Why overseas Pakistanis are sending more money through Handi, Referral instead of official channel?

 Why overseas Pakistanis are sending more money through Handi, Referral instead of official channel?

Remittances by overseas Pakistanis have recorded a continuous decline in the current financial year and in the month of October this year, remittances were about 16 percent less than in the same month last year.According to the data released by the Central Bank of Pakistan, October 2022 also saw a decrease of nine percent compared to September 2022 and if the four months of the current financial year are compared with the same months of the previous financial year, A decrease of more than eight and a half percent was observed in remittances from Pakistanis residing in the country.It should be noted that remittances from overseas Pakistanis are the main source of foreign exchange in Pakistan and its decline is being seen at a time when Pakistan is facing a shortage of foreign exchange and foreign exchange reserves with the central bank and commercial banks. is continuously decreasing.The Central Bank currently has foreign exchange reserves of eight billion dollars while the country's total foreign exchange reserves are 13.7 billion dollars. During the last week, Pakistan has had to pay 950 million dollars in external debt repayment due to which the foreign exchange reserves have decreased significantly.The trend of decreasing remittances in Pakistan started after the month of April this year. Remittances of 3.1 billion dollars in the month of April were the record remittances received in a single month in Pakistan, but after that they started to decrease and in the month of October only 2.2 billion dollars of remittances came to the country.Experts in the foreign exchange business in Pakistan claim that foreign remittances are still being remitted, but they are preferring informal channels such as reference and handi rather than legal or official channels, due to which remittances reaching Pakistan through official channels is decreasing.

It should be remembered that the inflow of remittances through unofficial channels is also very dangerous for the economy of the country because the dollars coming in the form of remittances help to increase the foreign exchange reserves in Pakistan and reduce the current account deficit of the country.What was the trend of remittances in one year?

If we look at the trend of remittances in a year in Pakistan, in the month of October last year, remittances of two and a half billion dollars were received and in the next four months, they remained around two and a half billion. In the month of March this year, an increase in remittances was seen when these amounts reached 2.8 billion dollars and in the month of April it crossed the threshold of 3 billion dollars for the first time to 3.1 billion dollars. They saw a decline after April and fell to $2.7 billion in August of the current financial year, followed by a further decline in September when remittances fell to $2.2 billion in October. From the month of April to the month of October, the volume of remittances has decreased by ninety crores.

Reference, What are the reasons for remittances coming through Handi? People associated with the currency business and experts claim that the main reason for the decrease in remittances is the difference between the official rate of the dollar in Pakistan and the rate found in the gray market, due to which most of the money now comes from remittances and handis. have been.Samiullah Tariq said that instead of the official channel, other channels give better rates. According to him, the official dollar rate is currently being offered at 221 rupees, while the same rate is being offered at more than 230 rupees from other channels.