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Indians in Australia & New Zealand - A
Portal for Indians in Australia and New Zealand
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Flaw in OCI Card Fees when paid in local currency Sydney, 28 Sep 07: Sydney's Prakash Chordia has highlighted a flaw in the application fees being charged for an OCI Card as described below: Consulate General of India Sydney website http://www.indianconsulatesydney.org/ under section "Application Fees" it states: "In case of applications to be filed at the Consulate General of India, Sydney, an amount of A$ 396/- has to be paid for each applicant by Bank Draft or Money Order drawn in favor of the Consulate General of India" However on the Ministry of Home Affairs website www.mha.nic.in/oci under section ' Instruction for filing an application' section 9)4 states: "Application fee by way of demand draft (US$ 275 for each applicant or equivalent in local currency; ......)" The current conversion rate for Australian Dollar is $US 0.88 for each Australian Dollar. With this conversion rate the equivalent of $US275 is $A312.50 only. A$396 is not equivalent of US275. It is therefore unfair that we should be asked to pay a sum of $396. Mr. Prakash has written via email to the Indian Consulate General's office in Sydney to follow up this matter with the Government of India to make the necessary correction. One of the fair ways would be to charge the OCI Application fees in US dollars. People living in any country would then be paying in their local currency converted into US dollars using the existing currency conversion rate. This sounds quite a fair and consistent policy. Based on Mr. Prakash's written submission, the Indian Consul Manju Channan has written to the Ministry in India urging for rectification. Let us hope the Ministry responds soon. NRIs Community website appreciates and supports Mr. Prakash's vigilant initiative. |
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