Badrul Ahsan :
The inward remittance dropped by 8.27 percent in the month of April comparing with the corresponding period of last year, Central Bank data showed.
Non-Resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) remitted US$1.09 billion in April. It was $1.19 billion a year ago.
According to Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, cumulative inflow of remittance also dropped by $1.96 billion or 16.02 percent in the first 10 months of the current financial year.
The country received $10.28 billion as remittance in July-April period of FY17
against $12.25 billion during the same period of FY16, the latest BB data says.
BB officials said that many non-resident Bangladeshis opted for illegal channels like Hundi to send their money home because of a lower rate of the US Dollar against the Taka in the banking sector.
The monthly remittance inflow on year-on-year basis also dropped in April for the 10th month in a row.
A BB official told The New Nation on Thursday that the remittance inflow continued to drop because of illegal Hundi, an informal system for transferring money, as there has been a significant US Dollar rate gap between the banks and the curb market for long.
The exchange rate gap between the banks and the curb market has recently decreased with easing of cash Dollar crisis in the banking sector, he said.
But the people who are involved in the international cartel of Hundi have introduced a door-to-door service for sending money to the relatives of expatriate Bangladeshis, which has made the NRBs to prefer the illegal channel, they said.
The BB officials said that the recent effort of the central bank to cut down Hundi, especially in the name of mobile banking, was yet to have any impact on the remittance inflow situation.
There are allegations that different quarters allure the NRBs to send money through mobile banking but the quarters never send the money home, their agents in Bangladesh pay receivers cash in the form of Taka instead.
Against the backdrop, the BB has recently tightened ceiling on transactions through the mobile financial services and identification process of clients to tackle Hundi and money laundering using the services.
Two Inspection Teams of the central bank have recently visited four countries – Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Singapore – to unearth the real cause of decline in the inward remittances.
The inspection teams also observed that a significant number of NRBs were sending their money through the illegal channel, he informed.
Former interim government Adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam told The New Nation that the negative growth in the inward remittance would hit the consumption capacity of the people.
The government and the central bank should take measures to prevent the ‘Hundi’, he pointed out.
Besides, the Middle East countries, where a large number of Bangladeshi expatriates are working, have been facing a dull business for the last few years as the global price of petroleum declined, he said.
“The NRBs in the United States and the United Kingdom have been facing anti- immigration sentiment. For this reason, they are avoiding to send the inward remittance,” he said.
The inward remittance dropped by 8.27 percent in the month of April comparing with the corresponding period of last year, Central Bank data showed.
Non-Resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) remitted US$1.09 billion in April. It was $1.19 billion a year ago.
According to Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, cumulative inflow of remittance also dropped by $1.96 billion or 16.02 percent in the first 10 months of the current financial year.
The country received $10.28 billion as remittance in July-April period of FY17
against $12.25 billion during the same period of FY16, the latest BB data says.
BB officials said that many non-resident Bangladeshis opted for illegal channels like Hundi to send their money home because of a lower rate of the US Dollar against the Taka in the banking sector.
The monthly remittance inflow on year-on-year basis also dropped in April for the 10th month in a row.
A BB official told The New Nation on Thursday that the remittance inflow continued to drop because of illegal Hundi, an informal system for transferring money, as there has been a significant US Dollar rate gap between the banks and the curb market for long.
The exchange rate gap between the banks and the curb market has recently decreased with easing of cash Dollar crisis in the banking sector, he said.
But the people who are involved in the international cartel of Hundi have introduced a door-to-door service for sending money to the relatives of expatriate Bangladeshis, which has made the NRBs to prefer the illegal channel, they said.
The BB officials said that the recent effort of the central bank to cut down Hundi, especially in the name of mobile banking, was yet to have any impact on the remittance inflow situation.
There are allegations that different quarters allure the NRBs to send money through mobile banking but the quarters never send the money home, their agents in Bangladesh pay receivers cash in the form of Taka instead.
Against the backdrop, the BB has recently tightened ceiling on transactions through the mobile financial services and identification process of clients to tackle Hundi and money laundering using the services.
Two Inspection Teams of the central bank have recently visited four countries – Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Singapore – to unearth the real cause of decline in the inward remittances.
The inspection teams also observed that a significant number of NRBs were sending their money through the illegal channel, he informed.
Former interim government Adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam told The New Nation that the negative growth in the inward remittance would hit the consumption capacity of the people.
The government and the central bank should take measures to prevent the ‘Hundi’, he pointed out.
Besides, the Middle East countries, where a large number of Bangladeshi expatriates are working, have been facing a dull business for the last few years as the global price of petroleum declined, he said.
“The NRBs in the United States and the United Kingdom have been facing anti- immigration sentiment. For this reason, they are avoiding to send the inward remittance,” he said.
