ISLAMABAD: Pakistani expats in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) welcomed Pakistan Post’s new remittance service, which will allow them to send money back home free of charge. 

Under the scheme, expats can send any amount above $200 through a number of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) foreign partners. It will be delivered free of charge to one of 500 designated post offices across the country, Pakistan Post’s deputy director-general, Khawaja Imran Raza, told Arab News.

“We have to wait for months to send money through our friends to Pakistan, but now we will be able to do that every month. If the remittance receiver does not face delays or other hurdles, it will be a very successful scheme,” Arshan Khan, a Pakistani expat working at a factory in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, told Arab News over the phone.

Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the new service for overseas Pakistanis on Dec. 24, under the Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Ministry of Finance.
 It allows customers to collect foreign remittances without any fees. All they need to do is present their national identity cards, PIN codes, the expected remittance amount, and the remitter’s details.

Some diaspora members are wary, however, about the implementation of the service.

Ameer Muhammad, a Pakistani worker in Jeddah, expressed his doubts over Pakistan Post’s capacity to deal with this new challenge.

“Different exchange companies and banks used to provide good services to receivers as they are trained to deal with money matters, but I am not sure how Pakistan Post staff will deal with our families,” he told Arab News.

Pakistan has the sixth-largest diaspora in the world, with approximately 7.6 million of its citizens living abroad. Around 4.3 million Pakistanis reside in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

According to SBP, the central bank, in 2019 overseas Pakistanis sent $1.81 billion in remittances as of November. Inflows from Saudi Arabia alone amounted to $407.48 million, making it the largest remittance source. The UAE was second with $383.77 million.

“The success of the service depends upon currency exchange rates as well, it should be according to the market. If they (Pakistan Post) will not offer the same rate, then it would not be beneficial for us,” said Jahangir Abbasi, a Pakistani expat who has been living in Dubai for more than three decades.

Another Pakistani expat from UAE, who hails from Zafarwal, a small city in Narowal district in central Punjab, appreciated the initiative. “It is a good step for us as Pakistan Post is available in Zafarwal, so my family will get money near to our home instead of traveling 30-40 kilometers to receive it from Narowal,” he told Arab News over the phone from Abu Dhabi.

Rizwan Sohail, who returned from the UAE last year and runs a publishing business, said the new remittance service will be a great facility for Pakistani workers. “There are many Pakistanis in the UAE, who are working on low salaries so for them 20-30 dirham fees were not affordable. Now they can not only send money free of charge but also receive it at the nearest post office,” Sohail told Arab News over the phone from Lahore.

Pakistan Post plans to expand the number of post offices offering the service to 1000 within a year, informed Raza.

“We are using NBP’s software since it has 41 banks and other financial organizations as partners world over. Anyone who wants to send money will use any of these partner institutions and the money will be delivered to the family through the closest designated post office,” Raza said, adding that the service would be especially beneficial for more than 5 million Pakistani expats in the Gulf region since most of them are low-end workers.

“We have also installed biometric machines to meet the international standards and obligations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The biometric verification of every recipient will be performed through KYC (Know Your Customer) and CDD (Customer Due Diligence). In order to carry out these services, our NBP software is connected to the NADRA database,” Raza said, informing that these services would be performed by “postman mobile banker” through fingerprint-enabled mobile devices that would be used to deliver money at the beneficiary’s doorstep.

“We have already started the pilot project with 10 handheld devices,” he said, adding that the mechanism is expected to encourage overseas Pakistanis to remit their cash through legal means and will boost the country’s foreign exchange reserves.