Send Money to Saudi Arabia from India

What each bank charges to send SAR to Saudi Arabia

Line items reflect the bank's published fee schedule. GST at 18% is charged on commission (and on Swift / correspondent charges where the bank explicitly applies it).

How to send money to Saudi Arabia from India

1. Get the beneficiary's bank details. Full name and address as held by their bank, bank name and address in Saudi Arabia, plus the IBAN and SWIFT/BIC code.
2. Pick the purpose code and fill Form A2. The A2 form is the LRS declaration; the most common codes for Saudi Arabia are S1301 (gift), S0305 (maintenance of relative), S0301 (business travel). Your PAN is mandatory and the bank checks your LRS usage for the financial year against the USD 250,000 cap.
3. Check TCS before you send. Above ₹10 lakh in a financial year most non-education purposes attract 20% TCS, collected by the bank and claimable in your ITR; education and medical purposes have lower rates. The calculator on this page applies it when you enter your year-to-date LRS amount.
4. Choose the channel. HDFC, ICICI, Kotak and Axis accept outward remittance in SAR through NetBanking or their apps; SBI routes select currencies through YONO and the rest through a branch; IOB is branch-led. Branch channels usually cost more — the bank pages list the difference.
5. Decide who pays the SWIFT and correspondent charges. OUR means you pay them upfront in rupees and the beneficiary gets the full amount; SHA and BEN shift them downstream, where they are deducted from what arrives. SBI's Payee, Remitter and Guaranteed modes are the same choice under different names.
6. The bank applies the TT Selling rate and its charges. Your INR is converted at the bank's published TT Selling rate for SAR at the moment of debit, then commission, SWIFT / correspondent charges and 18% GST are added — exactly the lines shown above.
7. Track it and expect 1–3 working days. Ask the bank for the SWIFT reference (UETR) so the beneficiary's bank can trace the payment. Saudi Arabia is 2.5 hours behind IST with a Sunday–Thursday working week; a wire sent on a Friday from India will not credit before Sunday.

LRS cap: USD 250,000 per resident per financial year (across all corridors combined). TCS at 20% applies above ₹10 lakh per year for most non-education purposes and is claimable in your ITR.

Sending to Saudi Arabia: what's different

Saudi Arabia is overwhelmingly an inward corridor for India; outward transfers are mostly family maintenance for dependants living in the Kingdom, business travel, and pilgrimage expenses.

On the receiving side

• Saudi accounts use a 24-character IBAN starting with SA; SAMA requires the IBAN on every incoming wire, so get it exactly as printed by the beneficiary's bank.
• The beneficiary name must match the account exactly — Saudi banks commonly return wires where it does not, rather than correcting them.
• Most Saudi banks do not charge for incoming personal transfers, but an intermediary bank may deduct a fee unless you choose the OUR charge option so an intermediary bank cannot take its fee out of the credited amount.

About SAR

The riyal is pegged to the US dollar at SAR 3.75, so SAR/INR moves only with USD/INR — the difference between banks is their margin. Not every bank prices SAR online; the comparison above shows who supports it.

Timing

Saudi Arabia is 2.5 hours behind IST with a Sunday–Thursday working week; a wire sent on a Friday from India will not credit before Sunday.

FAQ — Sending money to Saudi Arabia from India