RDA: inflow up 17%, clocks in at $160mn in December

Inflow through the Roshan Digital Account (RDA) clocked in at $160 million in December, up by 17% as compared to $137 million in November 2023, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Monday.

Out of the total amount, $7 million has so far been repatriated, while funds to the tune of $120 million have been utilised locally. The net repatriable liability stands at $34 million.

Meanwhile, cumulative inflows crossed $7.2 billion by December-end.

The central bank shared that total number of RDA accounts opened reached 651,057 from 640,875 a month ago at November-end.

As per the latest data available on the SBP’s website, the cumulative RDA inflow clocked in at $7.195 billion by the end of the previous month, out of which $1.538 billion has so far been repatriated, while funds to the tune of $4.442 billion have been utilised locally.

Consequently, total net repatriable liability stands at $1.215 billion as of December-end.

Out of the total outstanding liability, an amount of $786 million is with Naya Pakistan Certificates, with $331 million in conventional NPCs and $455 million in Islamic instruments.

Similarly, an amount of $375 million is ‘balances in accounts’, the SBP showed.

Meanwhile, Roshan Equity Investments improved monthly and stood at a meagre $30 million.

Background

RDA is a significant source of foreign exchange inflows for cash-starved Pakistan.

The initiative was launched in September 2020 by the SBP and offers up to 8% profit on US dollar investments.

Last year, the central bank in its bid to attract further remittance inflows announced the launch of Diamond Category in the Sohni Dharti Remittance Program.

Effective from September 22, 2023, a new ‘Diamond’ category has been added in the Sohni Dharti Remittance Program (SDRP). The new category is in addition to existing three categories namely, ‘Green’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Platinum’.

The Diamond category offers enhanced reward points and provision of other benefits such as arms licence of non-prohibited bore, preferential treatment at Pakistan embassies/airports and gratis passport to Diamond Category holders.