The annual remittance inflow declined by 11.15 per cent or US$1.71 billion in 2016 despite a significant rise in overseas jobs of Bangladesh nationals.
Bangladeshi expatriate workers sent home $13.61 billion by official count in the just-concluded calendar year 2016 against $15.32 billion a year before.
The remittance recession was revealed in the central bank statistics released Sunday -- true to a World Bank prediction that had worried government high-ups.
"Both the government and the Bangladesh Bank (BB) are now working to expedite the flow of inward remittances from different parts of the world in 2017," a senior BB official told the FE.
Listing different initiatives, the central banker also said the BB had already relaxed policy for establishment of drawing arrangement between the overseas exchange houses and the banks operating in Bangladesh to facilitate the inflow of remittances.
Under the relaxations, the amount of security deposit for drawing arrangement came down to US$10,000 from $25,000 while security deposit for Non-Resident Taka (NRT) account got trimmed down to Tk 0.20 million from Tk 0.50 million.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $958.73 million this past December, up by $7.56 million from that of the previous month. In November 2016, the remittances amounted to $951.37 million, the BB data showed.
Currently, 29 exchange houses are operating across the globe along with 1140 offshore drawing arrangements to expedite the remittance inflow, according to the central banker.
The central bank earlier took a series of measures to encourage the expatriate Bangladeshis to send their hard-earned money through the formal banking channel, instead of the illegal "hundi" system, to help boost the country's foreign-exchange reserves.
About 0.75 million Bangladeshi workers migrated to different countries in 2016, 35 per cent higher over the previous calendar year, according to the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU).
The figure was 0.55 million in 2015.
"This year, the decline in oil prices on the global market has seriously affected the [job] markets in the Middle-Eastern countries where more than 80 per cent of Bangladeshi migrants are working," Prof Tasneem Siddiqui, founding chairperson of the RMMRU, said recently while talking about the reasons for the fall in remittance inflow.
Talking to the FE, Mohammad Abdul Mannan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL), said the IBBL had already taken different measures to expedite the flow of inward remittances.
"Our all branches have already been instructed to provide better services to the beneficiaries for boosting the inflow of remittances," the country's highest remittance-recipient bank's chief executive said while explaining his bank's latest measures.
He also said the IBBL is ready to work with the central bank and the government to revamp the flow of inward remittance.
"We expect that the inflow of remittances will increase this calendar year," the senior banker said.
SOURCE: The Financial Express
