Final draft of the expatriate welfare bank act submitted

FE Team | Published: May 09, 2010 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Nazmul Ahsan
The final draft of the ' Expatriate Welfare Bank Act, 2010', submitted to the Ministry of Finance last week, has proposed fixation of the initial paid-up capital of the bank at Tk.1.0 billion.
According to the draft act, the proposed bank would provide loans only to the returnee Bangladeshi workers.
The proposed Act has not kept any provision for extending loan facilities to outbound workers. Besides, the opportunities for mobilizing deposits by the proposed bank would be limited.
The Wage Earners' Welfare Fund under the control of the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment will arrange the paid-up capital, the final draft added. The authorized capital for the bank has been proposed at Tk 5.0 billion.
A high-powered committee comprising representatives from the ministries of finance, expatriate welfare and law have finalised the draft Act. The committee has submitted the final draft act to the MoF last week.
Earlier, the MoF formed the committee to examine and finalise the initial draft act, originally prepared by expatriate welfare ministry, sources said.
The MoF is now busy scrutinizing the final version of the act before sending the same to Cabinet meeting for approval. Finance Minister AMA Muhith in his last budget speech had announced the establishment of Expatriate Welfare Bank to serve the returnee workers.
More than 70,000 Bangladeshi oversees workers lost their job in 2009 and were forced to return home as a consequence of global economic downswing, according to a source in the expatriate welfare ministry.
The remittances from expatriate Bangladeshis exceeded US$9.0 billion in the first 10 months of the current 2009-2010 fiscal, marking a 16.72 per cent growth over the same period of last fiscal, according to figure of BB.
The country has about 7.0 million expatriate Bangladeshis, mostly are employed in the Middle Eastern countries.
The draft act said the proposed bank would get the status of a specialised bank, while keeping scope for the bank to become a scheduled bank later. Only government offices, statutory bodies, companies and borrowers of the bank concerned will be eligible to deposit their money with the bank.
The Expatriate Welfare bank could invest their fund only in the approved sectors of the government and purchase shares of statutory organizations, said the final draft of the act.
The Secretary of Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment will be the Chairman of the bank, while an Executive Director from BB, two representatives from Wage Earners' Welfare Fund and two directors nominated by the governor will be on the seven-member board of directors of the bank, according to the draft.
A high official in the MoF said since the establishment of Expatriate Welfare Bank is a pledge of the government and a political decision, its approval process would need minimum time.
"The draft of the Expatriate Welfare Bank Act, 2010 will be sent to the Cabinet Division soon for approval," the official told the FE.