Lastly, the exchange rate may also be a contributing factor as the US dollar has weakened against the Fiji dollar. All these reasons however may still not fully account for the $ million drop in remittances last year. There may be other technical reasons which we are examining. The Reserve Bank would really like to see lower remittances charges.
These charges to do not appear to reflect the actual cost of remitting funds. The sender pays a lot of these charges which ultimately result in the receiver getting less Fiji dollars. And then at some outlets here in Fiji, the receiver gets slammed by another receiving charge. In some cases, the charges amount to 50 percent of the amount sent.