InstaReM supports Kerala flood victims, waives transfer fees on donations

Individual remitters sending funds to Kerala for family maintenance, medical treatment and hotel accommodation will also be not charged any transfer fees

InstaReM, Southeast Asia’s leading digital money transfer company, has announced waiving off of transfer fees on remittances to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) to help the victims of the devastating floods that have severely stressed the south Indian state of Kerala. This step is aimed at enabling the influential non-resident Indian (NRI) community to contribute to the relief efforts for the people affected by the worst floods in nearly a century in the southernmost Indian state.

Also, InstaReM.com will process individual remittances to the state of Kerala for the purposes of family maintenance, medical treatment fees, and hotel accommodations without any transfer fees.

Prajit Nanu, Co-founder and CEO of InstaReM, said, “As a responsible corporate citizen, InstaReM strongly believes in supporting people and societies in difficult times. We are closely tracking the situation in the state of Kerala and will do everything in our capacity to support the people in the state affected by the floods. Apart from waiving off the transfer fees on remittances to PMNRF, the InstaReM staff is also contributing to the relief efforts in their personal capacity. We are thankful to our customers and our banking partners in India for supporting the cause. We are hopeful that our efforts bring some comfort to the people of Kerala.”

Any InstaReM user looking to contribute to Indian Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund needs to click on the "Donate" section on the Dashboard and continue setup. The recipient details will be auto-filled to “Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund” and reason of transfer will be auto-selected as “Kerala flood relief donation through PMNRF”. No transfer fee will be charged for all such transfers. And like all of InstaReM money transfers, the money will be transferred at Zero-Margin FX Rates with mid-market rates sourced directly from Reuters. The contributions to the PMNRF are fully exempted from the Income Tax.

Remittance can be a powerful tool in helping with the Kerala floods disaster. India is the biggest recipient of remittances with its global diaspora having sent US$69 billion back home last year, according to the World Bank. Notably, the state of Kerala is the biggest receiver of inward remittances among all Indian states, accounting of nearly 19% of total inward remittances to India in 2016-17, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).