NRI deposits steadily risen high in Kerala

Kerala. April 23, 2007
Ashok Shah

In Kerala NRI transferred and touched a new high record of Rs 329 billion on Dec 31, 2006. The State owned Bank called "Bank of Travancore" leads all other banks with a record Rs 81 billion. The Kerala bank plans to expand its branch network in the north. It hopes to get license from the RBI to set up around 20 branches in the next financial year and will set up three branches in Lucknow, Bhubanseshwar, and Bhopal in next one month. The bank has 433 branches, out of which only 42 are in the north.

NRI remittances had helped the State face the economic crisis it passed through in recent years on account of poor prices for its cash crops and lack of industrial development. Kerala has the highest teledensity (telephones per thousand people) among all Indian states.’ ‘Residential customers in Kerala get electricity at the cheapest rates in India.

The state has created 12% of all new non-farm jobs in India over the 1998-2005 period, no mean achievement for a state that is home to only 3.5% of the county’s population.” Remittances or private transfers enter per capita disposable income and not the domestic product.It is therefore methodologically incorrect to adjust per capita SDP figures to account for remittances. Kerala has the highest per capita consumption expenditure among the Indian states.

India

In 1990-1991, remittances from NRIs overseas Indians were a modest $2.1 billion. The Reserve Bank of India has reported that NRIs transferred $24.6 billion to India in the fiscal year 2005-2006. The figures rose to $12.3 billion in 1996-1997, and then jumped to almost $22 billion in 2003-2004. Between 2000-2001 and 2003-2004, remittances almost doubled. With a small dip in 2004-2005, the 2005-2006 figures RBI reported suggest that the trend is here to stay.