Govt Likely to Make Changes to Home Remittances Incentive Schemes

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet met today under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb. The ECC discussed a summary by the Finance Division regarding changes in the home remittances incentive schemes, and tasked the State Bank of Pakistan and the Finance Division to propose and present a proper plan by 31st July to ECC, ensuring impact analysis and a roadmap for a properly-managed transition The Cabinet body also considered a summary by the Finance Division for the launch of a risk coverage scheme for small farmers and under-served areas, and accorded in-principle approval to the proposal with instructions for further fine-tuning and incorporating additional safeguards before its planned launch on 14th August 2025. The ECC was told that the scheme would likely bring 750,000 new agricultural borrowers into the formal financial system and generate an incremental credit portfolio of Rs. 300 billion during its disbursement tenure of 3 years from FY26 to FY28. The budgetary requirement for meeting risk coverage and operational cost of the banks is estimated to be Rs. 37.5 billion, spread over FY27 to FY31.