Tag Archives: Reserve Bank of India

According Reserve Bank of India data, the money sent abroad by Indians for travel grew threefold from $316.81 million in February 2021 to close to $1 billion ($980.45 million) in February 2022. This is under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) for resident individuals. It crossed the pre-pandemic level of $539.74 million in February 2020. Indians spent about $3.23 billion for travel, sharply down from $6.95 billion in FY20.

In its recommendations on corporate loan restructuring submitted by the KV Kamath-led committee to Reserve Bank of India, tourism does not feature as a problem sector among the top five, which include aviation, real estate, automobiles, infrastructure and power. The committee has suggested solutions for 29 of the 307 sectors it assessed.

On behalf of the hotel industry of Odisha, J K Mohanty, MHCIMA, Chairman – Hotel & Restaurant Association of Odisha & IATO Eastern Region, has written a letter to Reserve Bank of India, to extend the moratorium period up to March 2021 and exempt hoteliers from payment of interest during this period as it is not possible to pay interest without earning. He also expressed his gratitude to RBI for announcing immediate action to avoid the crisis by allowing relief on loan moratorium on interest and principal repayment for a period three months and later extended to six months.

According to an RBI survey, the aviation, automobiles, construction, MSME, and tourism & hospitality sectors would be the hardest-hit by COVID-19 pandemic. The bank carried out a systemic risk survey ‘to capture the perceptions of experts, including market participants, on the major risks faced by the financial system’.  Within the tourism sector, around 90 per cent of the respondents stated that the ‘prospects of recovery within the sector in the next 6 months appear bleak’. The aviation sector appears to be a close second, with nearly 85 per cent of the respondents categorising the prospects as grim. The results of the survey were published in its financial stability report released recently. It mentioned that the above-mentioned five sectors are adversely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Respondents said that “while most sectors face sizeable and immediate revenue losses, the adverse impact is seen in sectors where consumption spending is discretionary in nature”.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that banks are permitted to allow a three-month moratorium on payment of instalments of all term loans outstanding on March 1, 2020. This decision applies to all regional, rural and co-operative banks as well as NBFCs, including housing finance companies. The moratorium will not result in asset classification downgrade and will have no adverse impact on credit history of beneficiaries. Travel trade bodies and associations have been demanding a moratorium on EMIs and bank payments for a period of one year along with a complete tax holiday.

Spending on foreign travel was at $596 million in June 2019, which was 42% of the total forex purchased by Indian individuals in the month, according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which started collating data under the liberalised remittance scheme since 2004. It has been the highest spent on travel since then and was $381 million, accounting for 37% in June 2018. In the first quarter of FY19, international travel cost the country $1,594 million of the total $4,181 million in forex purchased by individuals between April and June 2019. In April-June 2018, travel was $1 billion out of a total spend of $3 billion. After travel, the next thing that Indians spent foreign exchange was education at 25%.