Migrants, workers can carry $1500 while going abroad

FE Team | Published: November 29, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The Bangladeshi migrants and overseas workers from now will be entitled to carry 50 per cent of the 'annual travellers quota' of $3000 or its equivalent in foreign currency during their departure from the country.
This means Bangladeshi nationals travelling abroad for work or on immigration with a one-way ticket would be able to carry cash foreign currency equivalent to $1500 while leaving the country.
The central bank issued a circular in this connection Wednesday and asked the authorised dealers (AD) to follow the new limit for issuing the foreign currency to Bangladeshi nationals who would go abroad as legal worker or as immigrant.
Earlier, the immigrants and workers with one-way tickets were not allowed to carry any foreign currency while departing from the country.
However, only the Bangladeshi tourists and visitors with return tickets could take foreign currency from the individual 'annual travellers quota' of $3000 in the form of cash or travellers' check (TC). Of this amount, an individual could carry maximum $2000 in cash and the remaining $1000 in TC.
"As the immigrants and workers with one-way ticket earlier used to travel to their destinations empty-handed and faced difficulties there, so from now the government decided to allow them to carry half of the annual travel quota entitlement either in cash or in the form of TC," a Bangladesh Bank (BB) official told the FE.
In the absence of legal permission, thousands of workers have been carrying foreign currency illegally to meet their expenses abroad, banking sources said.
The central bank official said: "Since the Bangladeshi workers and immigrants repatriate large amounts of foreign currency to the country every year, their empty-handed departure from their homeland was very painful and inhumane. Considering the issue, we have allowed them to carry maximum $1500 or equal worth of foreign currency in cash or in the form of TC."