Sri Lanka migrant workers’ foreign remittances for April 2023 were recorded at US$ 454 million, Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara said yesterday.
Minister Nanayakkara said that it is an 83.4 percent increase compared to April 2022, where the remittances were US$ 248.9 million. This was at the peak of the country’s economic crisis, when there were calls on expat workers not to remit money through official channels to Sri Lanka.
Posting on Twitter, the Minister said that total remittances through official banking channels so far this year had increased to US$ 1,867 million. The country received US$ 437.5 million in remittances in January, US$ 407.4 million in February and US$ 560 million in March, according to Central Bank of Sri Lanka statistics.
The Minister said that the Government plans to receive over US$ 500 million a month during the rest of 2023 from expatriate workers. This will bring it to pre-pandemic levels of US$ 5-6 billion a year.
Minister Nanayakkara told the media that it had, however, been difficult to find workers with the requisite skills for certain overseas jobs.
The Minister said that to secure these job opportunities, the skilled workers should be produced and that an agreement had been reached with the Vocational Training Authority (VTA) to train youth for foreign employment He said Sri Lanka had secured lucrative employment opportunities in several countries for skilled workers.
Among them were caregiver jobs in Japan and Europe, hospitality industry jobs in England, Canada, Australia and Construction industry jobs in the Middle East.
It has been revealed that millions of less affluent Sri Lankans working in the Middle East are sending money home while the more educated who hold higher posts in developed countries keep money stashed elsewhere, Minister Nanayakkara said.
“The most amount of foreign exchange generated for Sri Lanka comes from the Middle East,” Minister Nanayakkara told Parliament recently.
The Minister recently revealed a benefits package where expatriate workers will be given an additional duty concession of up to US$ 4,800 when they return to Sri Lanka in addition to the current duty concessions.
The duty concession, given as a special migrant labour package, is effective from May 1 and Sri Lankans abroad who send back remittances of US$ 2,400 or more within a year will be entitled to it. All migrant workers who have sent money to Sri Lanka through legitimate channels from May 2022 will also be entitled to it. This is the biggest concession granted to Sri Lankan workers abroad and will come under five categories: Silver, Silver +, Gold, Gold + and Platinum.