Business Desk :
The government has released Tk1,000 crore as part of its cash incentives against remittance for the second quarter (October to December) of the current fiscal year 2021-22.
An official of Bangladesh Bank confirmed the matter and said that the money given by the government will be released soon through the banking channels as per the regulations.
According to central bank sources, unpaid remittance incentive claims stood at Tk500 crore until October 6 of the current fiscal.
But the figure will reach Tk1,400 crore if previous unpaid claims are taken into account.
This means that even if the total incentive amount for Q2 is calculated, about Tk400 crore will be unpaid.
According to the latest data of Bangladesh Bank, in the first four months of FY22 (July-October), remittance decreased by 20%.
Last month (October) of this year, expatriates sent $1.64 billion, down 4.6% from September, the lowest income in the last year and a half.
After May earlier this year, remittances have not dropped so low in a month. The amount of remittance in that month was $1.50billion.
Prof Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellow at Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), told that the drop in remittance flow has already affected Bangladesh’s macroeconomy.
“Expatriates had sent their savings home during the Covid-19 period. Those who lost their jobs at that time sent all their earnings together. But that was one time.
“Currently the situation has changed. At the time of Covid-19 lockdown no worker could go abroad from the country. In all the countries where our workers mainly go, including the Middle East, the recruitment of foreign workers was stopped at that time,” he added.
“So, it was obvious that over time remittance will decline,” the economist further said.
According to Bangladesh Bank, remittances mainly came from five countries in the first four months of the current fiscal (July-October.)
