Govt cuts mobile money order service fee

The government has slashed the fee for the postal department's mobile money order service to 0.5 per cent from the previous rate of 1.85 per cent.

The finance ministry has approved the proposal of the postal department to lower the money transfer fee, according to a circular issued on Tuesday.

The postal department runs the mobile money order service, known as 'Electronic Money Transfer Service (EMTS)' to sent money from one post office to another.

On the other hand, the privately-run mobile money transfer operators charge senders a maximum of 1.80 per cent.

The government has reduced the EMTS charge significantly, compared with the private mobile money transfer networks, a postal department official told the FE.

The government's income from the mobile e-money service will increase manifold due to such a step, he mentioned.

The government earned Tk 13 million from money order-related transactions in fiscal year (FY) 2016-17.

It was Tk 282.30 million in FY '12, a 95.4 per cent decline over five years, according to a document received by the FE.

The number of money orders was 4.88 million in FY '12. The figure came down to 0.58 million in FY '17, it showed.

In FY '18, the department's total income stood at Tk 3.74 billion, a 24 per cent rise compared to the same period a year ago, a high official said.

There are 9,886 post offices across the country, which render services to more than 120 million people.

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