The Department of Posts (DoP) on Thursday tied up with U.S.-based MoneyGram International to offer money transfer solutions to Indians living abroad. Initially, the service will be available in 100 post offices in Delhi, Punjab and Tamil Nadu circles offering instant inward money transfer services and by 2014 it would be extended to 5,000 post offices across India. “India Post, which is world's largest postal network, will help crores of Indians living abroad to swiftly transfer money back home. The partnership between India Post and MoneyGram will increase transactions from key remitter countries, including the U.S., UAE, the U.K., Canada, Australia and Saudi Arabia,” Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal said after introducing the service.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot said through these initiatives, the DoP was reinventing itself.
He said last year, India received $53.1 billion in remittances from three-crore Indians living abroad, and this was going to go up in future as India was poised to become a trillion dollar economy soon. For India, remittances contributed 3.6 per cent share of GDP in 2009.
MoneyGram Senior Regional Director (South Asia) Harsh Lambah said the tie up with India Post reaffirms commitment to serving its customers in India.
