NRI deposits in India have surged post lockdown: Report

NRI deposits in India have increased sharply post Covid-19, said a Reserve Bank of India report on Friday. The NRIs deposited their money in their repatriable Indian bank accounts before coming back to India, revealed latest Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data.

New NRI deposits have increased to $4.86 billion, or around Rs 35,000 crore, during the first five months of the current financial year as compared to $4.04 billion during the same period of the previous fiscal.

The NR(E)RA repatriable deposits have alos surged to $6.04 billion during the April-August period compared to $2.5 billion during the same period in the previous year.

There are three kinds of deposit accounts of Indian banks where NRIs or PIOs (persons of Indian origin) deposit their money — NRE (non-resident external-rupee account), NRO (non-resident ordinary rupee account) and FCNR(B) (foreign currency non-resident bank account).

Deposits in NRE accounts are freely repatriable unlike NRO accounts. Both NRE and NRO accounts are rupee denominated. FCNR(B) are foreign currency accounts — dollar, euro and pound sterling accounts, says a report in the Print.

The $6.04 billion inflows to the NRE account in 2020-21 is the highest since 2015-16 when inflows to these accounts were $6.5 billion in the first five months of the financial year, the report added.

According to bankers, the surge has come as overseas Indians who came back to India after the pandemic broke out deposited their money into NRE accounts since these are repatriable, the report said.