Last fiscal’s remittances stand at $6.0b

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Siddique Islam
Remittances sent by Bangladeshis working abroad reached nearly US$6.00 billion, a record in the country's history, in fiscal 20006-07 that ended June 30 last, official sources said.
They said the amount is 24.52 per cent higher than that of the previous fiscal.
The flow of remittance in fiscal 2006-07 was a continuation of the trend of last fiscal when it was recorded at $4.80 billion. The growth in 2005-06 was 24.89 per cent over the previous fiscal.
The country's foreign exchange reserve stood at $5.13 billion Wednesday, thanks to a robust growth of remittances from the expatriate Bangladeshis, the sources added.
The foreign exchange reserve, however, is likely to come down slightly as the Bangladesh Bank (BB) is set to pay around $380 million to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) in a day or two.
The ACU is an arrangement among the central banks of the member countries to settle trade related payments on a multilateral basis. Its members are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
Under the existing provisions, settlement of the balance and accrued interests are made at the end of each two-month period.
The country received $5.98 billion worth of remittances during the last fiscal against $4.80 billion in the previous fiscal, according to the provisional figure of the central bank, released Wednesday.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $517.23 million in June last. In May 2007, the remittance was worth $557.02 million.
"We expected that the remittances would cross $6.00 billion mark, but it slightly dropped in June last due mainly to less working days and bank holiday," a BB senior official told the FE Wednesday.
Terming the existing flow of inward remittances satisfactory, he said the trend is likely to be affected by the First Solution Money Transfer Limited scam in London, one of the major destinations of expatriate Bangladeshi.
"Remittances that are sent through banks, particularly private commercial banks (PCBs), may hamper as expatriate Bangladeshis feel unsafe to remit their earned money," a senior official of a PCB told the FE.
He also said the PCBs are still trying to increase the inflow of inward remittances from different parts of the world.
The central bank earlier took a series of measures to encourage the expatriate Bangladeshis to send their earnings through the formal banking channel instead of the illegal "hundi" system and boost the country's foreign exchange reserves.
Besides, the BB has already directed the commercial banks to expedite delivery of remittances to the beneficiaries at the quickest possible time to encourage expatriates to use the banking channel for overseas fund transfers.