NRB allows job migrant returnees to open foreign currency account

KATHMANDU:

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central monetary authority, has allowed foreign employment returnees to stash convertible foreign currency equivalent up to $1,500 at their homes or open a foreign currency account to park the same amount at different banks.

This is the first time NRB has allowed Nepali foreign migrants to open a foreign currency account in the country.

“We introduced the provision as we started receiving complaints that many foreign job returnees were facing police harassment for possession of foreign currency,” Head of Foreign Exchange Management Department at NRB, Bishnu Nepal said. “We hope this facility will aid those workers, who usually come here for holidays and do not convert all foreign currency that they have brought from abroad.”

However, Nepal warned that foreign employment returnees must disclose their source of income prior to opening a foreign currency account or if they are caught in possession of foreign currency.

This latest NRB provision will also apply to those who obtain foreign currency under the facility extended to Nepali overseas travellers, says an NRB directive.

Nepalis going abroad currently get foreign exchange facility of $2,500 per overseas trip. Children, who do not have their own passports but are accompanying their parents on foreign trips, get an extra $500.

The amount is extended by banks upon submission of confirmed air ticket and passport containing visa of the destination country, if applicable. Of this amount, only $500 can be obtained in cash and the rest has to be in the electronic form.

“If people fail to spend the money they obtained under foreign trip exchange facility, they can keep up to $1,500 of that amount at home or park it at banks by opening a foreign currency account,” says NRB directive, adding, “This facility also applies to those who make earnings in foreign currencies.” Earlier, this limit was fixed at $1,000.

From earlier this fiscal, NRB has allowed anyone with foreign currency account to get dollar-denominated credit cards with $10,000 expenditure limit.

Source: THT