KATHMANDU, June 13: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has said that remittances from Nepali people who have gone for foreign employment have helped in improving the rural economy. Speaking on the occasion of the 22nd anniversary of IME Limited, a remittance company under the IME Group, Finance Minister Sharma said that the role of remittance companies in earning foreign exchange was significant.
“Remittances have increased the spending capacity of people in the rural areas. It has also helped the government's goal of alleviating poverty,” he said. "Remittance companies are becoming a secure means of sending the earnings of people living abroad to Nepal."
Sharma also lauded the contribution made by the remittance company in bringing the hard-earned money of Nepali people abroad to Nepal through legal channels and reducing the money laundering business. He mentioned that the budget of 2022/23 fiscal year also addressed many issues of foreign exchange through remittances.
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"The budget is not just about bringing foreign exchange through remittances. Special measures will be taken to bring foreign exchange in the FY 2022/23. This means increasing the production and processing of the resources we have and exporting them to the international market,” Minister Sharma said.
Similarly, Finance Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini said that remittance is being used for meeting basic needs such as food, shelter and clothes, but it should be used for capital formation in the coming days.
‘Remittance seems to be used more for personal consumption. But it needs to be used for nation-building in the coming days,” Marasini said. He said that the budget aims to earn foreign exchange by selling products to change the situation of earning money by selling labor.
