NRI Money
Matters.

Last week's dollar window just grew a rupee sibling.

Issue 02's FCNR piece pulled the biggest mailbag yet — mostly "can I really open one from here," and a few of you who already had. Thank you. Then, two days after it landed, the RBI went further.

This week: the RBI uncaps NRE rupee deposits too, the new US 1% remittance tax that's been filling my inbox (and the almost-free way around it), a quiet UPI upgrade that makes paying from abroad safer, the hills in the rain, and the World Cup tipping into the knockouts.

— Amish

One follow-up from the RBI, one from Washington, one from your UPI app.

A rupee-deposit sequel, a remittance tax that's now live, and a fraud fix worth knowing.

The new US remittance tax is 1% — and easy to avoid once you know the rule.

It isn't about how much you send, or where. It's about how you fund the transfer.

Here's the whole thing in one breath. Since 1 January 2026 the US charges a 1% excise on remittances out of the country. It was proposed at 5%, negotiated down to 3.5%, and finally enacted at 1% — and crucially, the trigger is the funding method, not the destination, the recipient, or the amount.

Will you actually pay it?

Two things to know:

• The provider collects it before the money lands — there's no separate bill, so it's easy to miss on a counter receipt.
• The US Treasury is giving providers penalty relief for the first three quarters of 2026 while systems catch up — but the tax itself applies now, from January.

If you already wire from a US bank or pay by card, do nothing — you were never in scope. If you still hand cash to a counter service, switch that same transfer to a bank-funded one and the 1% simply disappears.

→ Compare bank-funded transfer routes across 8 providers: fx-compare.

Your NRE rupee FD can now pay more than the rulebook used to allow.

Last week was the dollar window. This is the rupee one.

Until 17 June, a bank couldn't pay more on an NRE term deposit than on a comparable resident rupee FD — the ceiling kept NRE rates boxed in. The RBI just suspended that ceiling on fresh NRE deposits of three years and up, through 30 September, alongside the FCNR(B) dollar window. Net effect: banks can now compete openly for your money on both sides — rupee and dollar — for the first time in years.

Which one is which:

• NRE FD — rupee, freely repatriable, interest tax-free in India. You carry the rupee currency risk, but the newly-uncapped rates make it more tempting if you're neutral-to-bullish on the rupee.
• FCNR(B) — dollar, pound, euro or dirham in and the same currency back, 6–7% and tax-free, no currency risk. Issue 02 covered this one in full.

The one trap to avoid: the exemption is for fresh foreign inflows only. Sweeping money from your NRO account into an NRE deposit to chase the new rate does not qualify. It has to be new money sent in from abroad.

→ NRE & FCNR rates by bank, with a verify-on-the-bank's-site link per row: the rates table.

Take the hills in the rain. And eat the last of the mangoes before they're gone.

Two things India does better in late June than at any other time of the year.

↑ The ghats, mid-monsoon · Photo: Unsplash

The trip — the Western Ghats in monsoon

Once the school holidays end, the hill stations empty out and the rains turn the ghats electric green — waterfalls running full, mist sitting in the valleys, rates a fraction of peak season. Coorg for the coffee estates, Mahabaleshwar or Matheran for a car-free weekend out of Mumbai, Chikmagalur if you want quiet and a balcony to drink chai on while it pours. Pack for rain and lean into it; this is the version of India that postcards never show.

The plate — the last of the Alphonso

The Alphonso (hapus) season runs roughly April to late June, and it's closing now. If you're in India this month, this is your final window for the real thing before it vanishes for a year — go to a proper fruit market, not a supermarket, and buy a dozen ripened in hay. And if you're abroad reading this: the smell of a cut Alphonso is the single thing most of us are quietly homesick for. Worth timing a June trip around, honestly.

→ More off-season routes and city guides at the travel hub.

The group stage is closing — the World Cup gets serious this week.

A note for the football half of the diaspora — still most of you.

↑ Floodlights on · Photo: Unsplash

The group stage of the 48-team 2026 World Cup wraps this week, and the Round of 32 kicks off at the weekend, still spread across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The storyline for our crowd: this is almost certainly Lionel Messi's last World Cup, and Argentina are through — with England, France, Brazil, Spain and Portugal all in the mix behind them.

And it stays the rare thing the whole diaspora watches at once — tickets in Houston, a dawn kickoff in Dubai, a stream after work in London, a house party in New Jersey or Toronto. India isn't on the pitch, but every NRI group chat has picked a side by now, and the knockouts are when even the casual watchers tune in.

No money angle, and that's the point. Find your team's supporters' bar, and enjoy a tournament finally being played in our time zones.

A question from a reader in New Jersey.

This week: the remittance-tax question, which landed in my inbox a dozen times.

Short answer: yes — the way you're doing it now. A cash hand-over at a counter is exactly the funding method the 1% targets. At $2,000 a month that's about $20 a transfer, roughly $240 a year, for nothing.

The fix is almost free. Fund the same transfer from your US bank account instead — an ACH or bank-funded transfer through the same shop, or a service like Wise or Remitly pulling directly from your account. Same money, same parents, same monthly rhythm, minus the tax. Most counter services will happily switch you from cash to bank-debit if you ask.

And don't try to be clever about it. The exemption is about the funding method, not the size or frequency — so there's no point "batching" three months into one cash transfer to dodge it. Change the funding source, keep the cadence, and the problem's simply gone.

Have a question? Reply to this email. I read every one and pick one for next week. Best 3 replies each issue get a free Profiler PDF report.

If a section above left you wanting more.

Check how you fund your next transfer to India.

If you wire from a US bank account or pay by card, you're already exempt from the new 1% — nothing to do. If you still pay cash at a counter, switch the funding to your bank account and you've just saved 1% on every future transfer, permanently. Two minutes, then it's done forever. → compare routes.

Worth reading

Two primary sources under this week's headlines: the RBI's 17 June circular on the NRE/FCNR rate caps (on rbi.org.in), and the IRS guidance on the remittance excise under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Read the source before you trust anyone's summary, mine included.

Question for next week

How do you actually send money home — bank wire, card, an app, or cash at a counter? Hit reply and tell me, and whether this issue made you rethink it. Best 3 replies get a free Profiler PDF report.

Forward this to an NRI who'd find it useful. New subscribers get the back catalog.

Until Monday,

Amish