The Reserve Bank of India today released the data from the Survey of Private Remittances to India.

The Reserve Bank had conducted a survey on Private Remittances to India for the reference years 2007-08 and 2008-09, in the selected districts of four states (viz., Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala and Punjab) with high concentration of inward foreign remittances, during December 2009 to July 2010.

The objectives of the survey were to:

1. Analyse the economic profile of households receiving remittances

2. Identify the source country of remittances

3. Classify the modes of remittances, Geographical spread of remittances in India; and

4. Ascertain the utilisation pattern of remittances.

For the purpose of the survey, nine districts from the four states were selected using probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling technique and the households were selected randomly from both Rural and Urban areas based on the Non-Resident (External) Rupee Account [NR(E)RA] accounts maintained with Authorised Dealer (AD) bank branches. It was decided to conduct the survey in these four states with the target sample size in the range 4,000-5,000, with 2,000-2,500 households each from Rural and Urban areas. Out of the around 7,000 households identified for canvassing, 2,947 households responded. Information on private remittances to India was collected from the selected households in the attached survey schedule as per the attached data description.

The highlights of the survey results are given below:

• Of the 2,947 survey respondents, 53.5 per cent households were from urban areas whereas the remaining 46.5 per cent were from the rural areas. Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab and Maharashtra accounted for 46.4 per cent, 34.2 per cent, 10.3 per cent and 9.1 per cent of the respondents, respectively. [Table 1: Basic Households information]

• Average annual income and expenditure of the survey respondents during 2008-09 stood at ` 5,95,814 and `362,953, respectively. Remittances received from abroad had the largest share (68 per cent) in their total income whereas the expenditure on the food items (40 per cent) had highest share in expenditure.[Table 2: Income and Expenditures of households]

• Around half of the respondents refused to give the details of their financial assets. For the remaining households, average assets and liabilities stood at ` 49,48,436 and ` 82,285, respectively, at the time of survey. [Table 3: Assets and Liabilities of the Households]

• 67 per cent of total migration was concentrated in the occupation of Software professional, Self-Employed professionals and Entrepreneur/Partnership. [Table 4: Information on the country wise migrant's occupation]

• As per the survey respondents, around 70 per cent of the migrants had at least a high school degree. [Table 5: Information on the country-wise migrant's education]

• United States, United Kingdom and Dubai were the main destinations of migration and together constituted around half of total migration during the reference period. Kerala accounted for most of the migrations to the Gulf countries whereas migrations to America and European countries were from other states. [Table 6: District-wise and country-wise migrants]

• Household consumption was reported as the major use of remittance (around 40 percent) in both rural and urban areas. The share of funds used for education was small (3.6 per cent). Since family members of NRI account holders were the survey respondents, investment in types of activities such as the purchase of land or a house by NRIs beyond the knowledge of respondents were not reported in the survey. [Table 7: Information on use of remittances]

• Direct credit to Non-Resident account was reported as the major mode of remittance of money from abroad in all the nine centers ( 57.5 percent on an average of selected cities) and its share ranged from 38.2 per cent (Trissur) to 96.7 per cent (Mumbai) in total remittances during the reference period. [Table 8: Modes of Sending Remittances from abroad]

The district-wise granular data from the survey can be accessed by researchers and analysts from the links given below:

Ajit Prasad
Assistant General Manager

Press Release : 2012-2013/277