The government has moved to introduce a special incentive and a preferential rate against foreign currencies to be sent by Bangladeshi migrants.
The ministry of expatriates' welfare and overseas employment (MoEWOE) requested the ministry of finance (MoF) and the Bangladesh Bank (BB) to take necessary steps to that end, said an official of the MoEWOE.
The move has been taken to encourage them to remit home their hard-earned money through the formal channel.
If implemented, the move will help increase the inward remittance flow through official channels, especially through scheduled banks, exchange houses and under drawing arrangements. It will also lessen money transfer through any unofficial channel like 'hundi.'
The initiative has come, when the inward remittance in the last couple of months of the outgoing fiscal year was showing a downward trend, sources said.
When contacted for his comment on his mobile phone Sunday, Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain said: "The BB can give the update. So, you can talk to the central bank."
When asked, Md. Ahsan Ullah, executive director of the BB, said: "We just received a letter from the MoEWOE relating to remittance and we are working on it."
"We have taken a move to collect data on benefit/incentive being offered by different countries to their migrant workers across the globe," he said. Â
"It is very a crucial task to implement the preferential rate in the context of our country, as the rate of US dollar fluctuates frequently. In spite of this, the central bank is working on it in the interest of Bangladeshi migrants," another high official of the BB said.
"We will honour the highest remittance senders in different parts of the country on August 09 next," Mr Mahfuzur Rahman, spokesperson and executive director of the central bank, told the FE.
Bangladeshi nationals working abroad have to pay commission to the banks for sending their money to their near and dear ones. The receivers of the remittance have to pay commission again for drawing the money, according to sources.
Presently, India, Pakistan and the Philippines are giving special incentives to their migrants for increasing their remittance flows.
A high official of the MoEWOE said Bangladesh was not taking the remittance issue into consideration seriously despite its being a big foreign currency earning sector. As a result, the country was witnessing a fall in the overall inward remittance flow in the current fiscal year. Â
The remittance inflow was not at a satisfactory level right now. The total remittance inflow in 11 months from July to May last decreased by around 3.5 per cent to $ 12.92 billion from $ 13.40 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.
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