By Sandun A. Jayasekera

In a bid to fatten the remittances coming to the country from expatriate Sri Lankans, the government has introduced a novel ‘Interest Free Foreign Currency Loan’ (IFFCL) scheme for those who remit a minimum of US$ 50 a month or US$ 600 annually for five years through legal channels, government spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardana said.   

Under the new product introduced in collaboration with the Labour Ministry and the Foreign Employment Bureau, an expatriate Sri Lankan will get the opportunity to draw an interest free loan worth double of his or her savings after five years which is US$ 6,000 (Rs. 2.2 million approximately) Minister Gunawardana added.   

“The loan obtained from a state or commercial bank in the country can be settled in five years in the same way, he or she built up the saving account by paying US$ 50 per month interest free in the following five years,” he said.   
The total number of expatriate Sri Lankans including the so-called Tamil diaspora is about 3 million. If one million of Sri Lankans joined the IFFCL, the foreign reserves of Sri Lanka would be increased by US$ 3 billion annually at this critical time.   
 Minister Gunawardana said the government has also decided to lower the minimum age limit for Sri Lankan women to work as domestic workers abroad to 23 years from the current 25 years for Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.  

A cabinet sub-committee headed by Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe has gone through the proposal for reduction of the age limit of Sri Lankan women to work overseas, and the decision to revise the age limit of women has been taken on the recommendation of that committee. 

 
The current minimum age limit for Sri Lankan women to work as domestic workers abroad is 25 years for Saudi Arabia, 23 years for other Middle Eastern countries and 21 years for other countries.  

• Govt.  has decided to lower the minimum age limit for Sri  Lankan women to work as domestic workers abroad to 23 years from the  current 25 years