Pakistan Post to launch Foreign Remittance Initiative

Minister says initiative would enable Pakistani expatriates to send their hard-earned money to their loved ones

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Saeed has said that Pakistan Post is planning to launch Foreign Remittance Initiative (FRI) for overseas Pakistanis to offer them free of cost money transfer service.

The minister, during a press briefing here on Sunday at Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Postal Staff College, said that the proposal had been sent to the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for approval in the last month.
He noted the initiative would enable Pakistani expatriates to send their hard-earned money to their loved ones at doorstep with the help of the Pak-Post.

Murad observed that FRI was aimed at encouraging the overseas Pakistanis to remit their cash through legal means which would eventually lead to boost foreign exchange reserves of the country.
"Around US$ 20 billion are being remitted via Hawala-Hundi, annually," Murad claimed, adding that the prime objective of FRI was to curb this menace.

He said since there was a trend to send money through mobile, Pakistan Post had initiated electronic money order through which up to Rs50,000 can be sent.

He said that a mobile company deducts Rs2,500 on an amount of Rs25,000 while the charges of Pakistan Post are a mere Rs550 on an amount of 50,000. He informed that same day delivery has been initiated.

Highlighting his ministry's last six months performance, Murad said that revolutionary measures had been taken to bring significant changes in the department in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The minister said that the volume of mail and revenue had increased, adding that, only in Express Post, the traffic had gone to 4.5 million mail items from 3.2 million during the last six months of the current year as compared to corresponding period of the last year. For

Express mail, the revenue had increased to Rs291 million from Rs188 million for the same period, he added.
Murad maintained that Pakistan Post had met the revenue target in nine months due to the government’s measures in attracting the private sector towards the national courier service.
“Recently, the SBP had agreed to support digitization of more than 7,000 rural post offices to meet the goals of financial inclusion especially in rural areas,” he said.

The minister added that e-Commerce initiative had booked more than 46,000 packets, earning around Rs3.5 million in two months.
The minister observed that 614 franchise post offices had been activated on NADRA e-Sahulat kiosks.

Murad said that Pakistan Post was offering its services for the youth as well. The youngsters who design products and do not have a shop to sell can use Pakistan Post’s website for the purpose. He told that 514 local brands had been registered with them.

Even women who stitch clothes at home can send the pictures to the Pakistan Post. The post team would then visit them, acquire information and sell the fabrics on its app.

The revolutionary launching of EMS plus was a great step and had proved as fast, reliable and affordable service.

Murad said that as many as 50,000 boxes of different sizes had been supplied to the post offices so far to facilitate customers in the first phase to discourage archaic method of parcel sending.

Murad said that no employee of Pakistan Post was being fired but in fact old employees were being provided advanced training.