In case someone wants to transfer Money CAD to India to their parents etc.

Basically you will pay commission of about 2 %, which is hidden in the exchange rate. But all banks do that or close to it, so its not a big deal. You NEVER get the official exchange rate by RBI, Bank of Canada , Major currency exchange boards , when you transfer money to India.

I transferred money to my own NRO account in India which is also with ICICI.

Timeline :

Sep 2 - Transferred money
Sep 5 - Money Got debited from My Canadian Bank account ( Scotia BanK )
Sep 8 - Money got deposited in Rs. In my NRO account in India, which is also with ICICI.

If I was transferring to a non ICICI account , it would have taken 1-2 days more , so maybe Sep 9 or Sep 10.

Rates :

Sep 2 : Indicative rate given to me by ICICI was 1 Cad = Rs 54.83
Sep 2 : The actual rate on XE and other major exchange boards was 1 Cad= Rs 55.65


Sep 8 : The actual rate at which the money was deposited by ICICi was 1 Cad= Rs 54.44
Sep 8 : The actual rate on XE and other major exchange boards was 1 Cad= Rs 55.22

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Plus ICICI ( or the Indian Gov. ), charges a Service Tax on the deposit at the following rate, with minimum charge being Rs. 30.90

Service Tax : ( on money transfers )

http://www.icicibank.com/nri-banking/money_transfer/popup-disclaimer/servc-tax-ruls.page?

Service Tax Rules

0.12 per cent. of the gross amount of currency exchanged for an amount upto rupees 100,000, subject to the minimum amount of rupees 30; and
Rupees 120 and 0.06 per cent. of the gross amount of currency exchanged for an amount of rupees exceeding rupees 100,000 and upto rupees 10,00,000; and
Rupees 660 and 0.012 per cent. of the gross amount of currency exchanged for an amount of rupees exceeding 10,00,000, subject to maximum amount of rupees 6000
Note: Education cess (including higher education cess) @ 3% would be charged on the service tax computed as above.

Expect the time , which almost took 6-7 days and the money aka commission they make on the exchange rate, but ALL banks do that , not just ICICI , I had a pleasant experience with ICICI Money2India

Also the initial registration , where your Canadian bank account is registered, linked and validated by Money2India , takes 3-4 days. This is a ONE time process , and after the initial setup you are good to go.

So my advice is whenever you want to transfer money , transfer 6-7 business days in advance as its NOT instant and expect to lose about 2 % in commission aka exchange rate as compared to the OFFICIAL exchange rate you see on major currency exchange boards and google, yahoo etc.

Commercial banks NEVER give you that rate, as thats their margin, profit and cost of doing business.

So in the end unless its a huge massive amount, it works out to be a few bucks here and there in exchange rate, not a big deal to me, as long as the transfer is smooth and without any problems