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Abstract

According to The Economist, in 1907 USA sent 6 billion dollars through 2625 agents in grocers, backers and other shops. Recent estimates of global remittances sent by migrants are 715 billion USD and India is the top receiver of remittances claiming more than 12% of world’s remittances in 2015. Due to its large Diaspora, India consecutively remains the top receiver of remittances with 80 billion USD in 2018, 65.3 billion USD in 2017 and 62.7 billion in 2016. The ministry of Overseas India Affairs reports that, India receives remittances from approximately 35 million members of the Indian Diaspora. This crossborder money transfer is not a new phenomenon; it can be traced back to medieval India. Hundis were used as a form of remittance instrument to transfer money from place to place as a form of credit instrument or to borrow money and as a bill of exchange in trade transaction. The Reserve Bank of India describes Hundi as an unconditional order in writing made by a person directly to another to pay a certain sum of money to a person named in order. The British government in India , regarded Hundi as a traditional form of monetary transaction. They were reluctant to interfere with it as it formed an important part of Indian Economy and they wished to tax the transactions taking place within the system.

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