India, Canada Working On Easing Cross-Border Remittances: Sitharaman

India and Canada are working towards making cross-border remittances easier, a move that may benefit over four lakh Indian students in various universities in the North American country.

“We have had conversations on how digital technologies can help each other,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters in Toronto after the inaugural Economic and Financial Dialogue with Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.

Sitharaman shared the Indian experience of the use of direct benefit transfer to make payments to beneficiaries of various government schemes during the COVID pandemic.

“We are talking; our teams are going to be talking further, and adopting everything which helps in easier payment, cross-border remittances, and also within the country, multiple choices for digital payments so that citizens can benefit from it,” she said.

Champagne said the financial services sector presented one of the highest growth opportunities between India and Canada.

“We are looking to have closer cooperation. We're looking to facilitate payments, for example, for students.

“We know we have 400,000 Indian students. We know that the remittance could be around 45,000 Canadian dollars per student. So, we are committed, both myself and the Minister of Finance of India, to facilitate that, because that, I think, will be a great benefit to the Indian students that are living in Canada,” he said.

Champagne said easier remittances would give peace of mind to the parents in India who have their kids studying in Canada.

“We're looking at a number of things to facilitate payment between Canada and India, to have more financial institutions operating in the Indian market,” he said.

Sitharaman arrived in Toronto on Tuesday on the first leg of her eight-day official trip to Canada and the US to further deepen bilateral ties.

During the US leg of her visit, Sitharaman will participate in the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in Asheville, North Carolina and hold a series of bilateral and business engagements.