Badrul Ahsan :
The remittance inflow in the month of March fell by 16 percent compared to the corresponding period of last year despite several attempts taken by the government to prevent fall, sources said.
According to the Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, non-resident Bangladeshis’ (NRB) remitted Tk 86.19 billion last month against Tk 102.80 billion during the corresponding month of 2016.
The trend of remittance has been on the slide since beginning of last year.
However, money market experts attributed the low oil prices in the Gulf countries and political instabilities and civil war as reasons of remittance fall.
Subhankar Shah, Executive Director of the Central Bank, said the falling currency rate against dollar and low oil prices have hit the earnings of the Middle Eastern countries where most Bangladeshi migrants work.
“Slump in oil price hurt the overall earnings of the wage earners mostly from the Gulf Countries, which pushed remittance inflow to downward.”
“Some NRBs are also using informal channel, including mobile banking, for sending their money home,” he said. Meanwhile, two teams of experts of Bangladesh Bank (BB) are visiting Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Singapore to find reasons behind the declining trend of remittances.
M Akhtaruzzaman, BB Economic Advisor is leading a three-member team in Saudi Arabia where over 80 lakh Bangladeshis have been working and a record amount of US$2955.55 million was remitted in Fiscal Year 2015-16.
Another team headed by General Manager of BB Governor’s Secretariat Dr M Habibur Rahman has gone to Malaysia and Singapore, to discover reasons and to boost forex income of the country.
The Central Bank through the Foreign Ministry has also asked the Bangladesh missions abroad to take necessary steps in getting the cooperation of law enforces of the respective countries to stop the use of illegal channels by the Bangladeshi workers in sending remittances home.
Alongside the initiative, the BB has also asked different mobile banking operators to enhance their surveillance in the mobile money transactions, besides lowering the ceiling of such transactions to check any abuse of the services.
Meanwhile, Banks and Financial Institutions of BB have recently submitted a proposal to the authority to provide incentive to local expatriate who are working abroad so that the NBRs become encouraged to send their hard-earned money through the legal channel.
Bangladesh gets bulk of its remittance from the Gulf countries.
Bangladesh migrants sent home US$1337.14 million from Malaysia and US$387.24 million from Singapore in 2015-16.
