Staff Reporter :
The government has proposed an incentive of two per cent on money remitted by expatriate Bangladeshis to encourage bringing in foreign remittance through legal channels.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who partly read out the budget on behalf of Finance Minister Mustafa Kamal on Thursday, proposed allocation of Tk 3,060 crore for next fiscal year (2019-20) to this end and to mitigate the burden of increased expenses in sending foreign remittances.
“This will significantly increase the remittance flow through legal channels and discourage the ‘hundi’ business,” she told the Parliament.
The Prime Minister said, the expatriate Bangladeshi workers and their families often face financial losses and risks due to accidents and various other causes as there are no insurance facilities available to them.
Preparations have been taken to bring the expatriate workers under the insurance scheme, which will be implemented shortly, she said.
Sources said, Bangladeshi overseas workers have been suffering a serious setback when remitting their hard-earned money due to inadequate number of agent points and highly cost to send the remittance in their destination countries with legal channels.
Among them, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates are the major sources of remittance earnings for Bangladesh.
An estimated 10 million Bangladeshi workers are employed abroad and they remit US$15 billion, on an average, a year to help boost the country’s foreign currency reserve.
