Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has decided to set up a task force for streamlining transmission of remittances by expatriates from countries where Pakistani banks or foreign exchange companies do not operate.
The task force will have members from the State Bank (SBP), National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and the labour ministry that deals with expatriates' affairs. The Prime Minister was chairing a meeting here on Thursday to review goals and objectives he assigned to the labour ministry.
Transmitting remittances through legal channels has always been a gigantic task for expatriates across the globe and there have been persistent complaints about the matter. The problem is severe in countries where Pakistani banks or foreign exchange companies do not have operations.
Most of the Pakistani working abroad prefers illegal channels like Hundi to transmit money to their families back home due to this problem. Governments, in the past, have been indecisive on how to tackle it. During the meeting, the Prime Minister also took strong exception to the labour ministry's failure to control declining trend in Pakistan's manpower export.
Unhappy over the issue, he directed the ministry to take some 'out-of-the-box' measures to help enhance country's manpower export, sources privy to the meeting told Business Recorder.
It has already been reported Pakistan's manpower export had declined significantly as the figure had dropped down to 91,700 in 2005 compared to 225,000 in 2003.
Remittances expatriates transmit is among one of the major sources for the government to help finance surging current account and fiscal deficits that had touched new heights during last fiscal year. With this declining trend in the manpower export, it is being feared Pakistan will in near future be losing one of the big sources of income.