By Muna Chand
Kathmandu, April 8
The Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security (MoLESS) has put forth several
recommendations to encourage remittance inflow through formal banking channels.
Addressing a program organized in Kathmandu on Thursday, Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security Krishna Kumar Shrestha said Nepalis working abroad should be lured to send money back home through formal channels by using banking channels. More remittance would ensure adequate foreign exchange reserve and sufficient capital in the banks, he added.
Minister Shrestha argued that the state should treat migrant workers in a dignified manner to receive remittance through formal channels, end the remittance cost and establish branches of Nepali banks in the major cities of the labor destination countries.
An additional two percent interest rate should be given to the depositors in case they directly remit money to Nepal’s bank account and the returnee migrants should be waived off in taxe for their in-kind remittance if they submit evidence of a formal channel for remitting their income, Minister Shrestha suggested.
The provision of depositing money in the foreign employment welfare fund for taking labor
approval for remigration should be waived off if the migrant workers submit evidence of
remitting money through formal channels.
The other proposals made by Minister Shrestha include felicitating those sending the highest amount of remittance, ensuring interest-free loans to the returnee migrants for the
entrepreneurship development in the country upon their return home, and making mandatory provisions for the migrant workers to open bank accounts.
