The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The popular assumption about the Australia rush is that it is a one-way remittance ticket with large amounts of remittance coming into Bhutan and while that may be true to a certain extent, what is not take into account is also the money sent the other way for fees and living expenditure.
Data from the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) shows that Bhutanese sent AUD 19.21 mn or Nu 1 billion (bn) (1 AUD = Nu 52.51) as student education fees and living allowance from 2019 to June 2022 which is in three years and six months.
The highest so far was in 2019 at AUD 9.14 mn or Nu 479.94 mn, then in 2020 it dropped due to the pandemic at AUD 3.85 mn or Nu 202.16 mn and even more in 2021 at AUD 1.93 mn or Nu 101.34 mn.
However, there has been a major pick up in the first six months of 2022 till June at AUD 4.29 mn or Nu 225.26.
A RMA official said that by the end of 2022 it could well match or cross the 2019 figure.
The above figures are mainly the approximately AUD 13,000 to 15,000 per semester fee for six months which is around Nu 700,000 to Nu 800,000.
Another would be around Nu 150,000 for a comprehensive health insurance which is also wired there.
A smaller amount would be the USD 2,400 that Bhutanese parents can wire every month to Australia for students as USD 900 for stipend and USD 1500 as living costs.
The above figure is only money transferred via the banking route and does not include cash carried by students while going there, the airfare paid, visa fees paid to visa agent and the Australia High Commission in Delhi.
If a student is going to Australia, then the total money spent with one semester fees paid would be cross around Nu 1 mn plus.
They are then allowed to exchange and carry USD 3,000 in cash which the banks provide. The bank figures also do not reflect the amount paid by Bhutanese in Australia paying the fees for their relatives coming there.
So the actual amount spent by Bhutanese in the last three a half year is well over the Nu 1 bn that only reflects the fees and health insurance sent via the banking route from here.
Even if one takes a conservative 30% underestimation and the figures not reflected then the actual money spent could be around Nu 1.3 bn.
By comparison in this 3 and a half years the amount remitted is AUD 225.43 mn or Nu 11.837 bn at the current exchange rate. So it is still a profitable exchange for now.
In 2019 AUD 21.72 mn was remitted but there was a pandemic jump in 2020 when AUD 102.80 mn was remitted followed by AUD 71.84 mn in 2021 and AUD 29.07 mn till June 2022.
