Rupee rise? NRIs seek compensation

Indian expatriates in the United Arab Emirates have demanded a compensation package from the Indian government as the appreciation of the Indian rupee had impacted their remittances back home.

The demand follows a study conducted recently by the Centre for Socio-economic and Environmental Studies, Kochi, which had focused on the impact of rupee appreciation on the economy of Kerala.

K B Murali, president of the Kerala Social Centre, Abu Dhabi, said that the findings of the study should serve as an eye opener for the Indian government to the need for adequately compensating the losses suffered by the expatriates because of the appreciation of the rupee.

"It was the remittances from Indian expatriates which had saved the country from the foreign exchange crisis towards the end of 1980s and early 1990s," Murali was quoted as saying in the Khaleej Times.

"So the government of India should own up its responsibility to support the expatriates when they are facing such a crisis for no fault of theirs," he added.

R V Muhammedkutty, president of the Abu Dhabi unit of Overseas Indian Cultural Congress, also said that the rupee appreciation had adversely affected expatriates in the Gulf.

"Inflation in this region has also led to drastic decline in their savings which otherwise could have been remitted to their dependents back home," he said.