The Finance Act, 2012 has made sea changes in levy of Service Tax of 12.36% including education on fees/commission on remittances from overseas. Central government has already issued Notification 28/2012 dated 20.6.2012 bringing into effect the aforesaid “Place of Provision of Services Rules” from 01.07.2012.
The purpose of addressing this problem is to highlight the adverse impact; this could have on the inward remittance flows to the country and more so on scores of NRIs who have proved to be ever dependent source for inward remittances. As per RBI statistic issued, the annual inward remittance to the country is USD 65 Billion which is about 3% of India’s GDP and India has topped the list of countries receiving maximum remittances in the last 2 to 3 years. This goes a long way in meeting the present trade deficit gap of Rs.185 Billion.
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Amitava Ghosh, on behalf of All India Association of Authorized Money Changers & Money Transfers Agents, said, “ We are aware that certain states like Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh have maximum number of emigrates employed overseas in Gulf ,European countries and in USA. In few states, the lack of availability of good opportunities have forced such Indian Nationals to go abroad for their livelihood and this too has been the blessing in disguise for such states as well as the country. In fact such NRI remittances account for nearly 31% of Net Domestic Product of Kerala, 13% in case of Punjab and 7% in case of Tamil Nadu.”
