As Sheikh Hasina resigned from the position of prime minister and fled Bangladesh on August 5 in the face of a mass uprising, the amount of remittance arriving in the country through legal channels has gone up.
Remittance inflow stood at Tk 13,374 crore in the first 17 days of August, according to Bangladesh Bank data.
Moreover, the inflow was $9.56 crore in the first three days of August, but then it spiked to $38.71 crore between August 4 and 10.
Central bank data show that in the first 17 days of August, remittance inflow through legal channels reached $114.42 crore. The figure – when converted to Bangladeshi currency at Tk 118 per USD – amounts to around Tk 13,374 crore.
During this period, state-owned banks received $15.29 crore in remittance, among the two specialised banks, Krishi Bank received $3.77 crore, while private banks received over $94.14 crore, and foreign banks $21.5 lakh.
Ten banks however did not receive any remittance during the above mentioned period.
These include the state-owned Bangladesh Development Bank or BDBL, the specialised Rajshahi Agricultural Development Bank (RAKUB), private sector’s Community Bank, Citizen Bank, ICB Islami Bank, Padma Bank, Shimanto Bank, and foreign banks Habib Bank, National Bank of Pakistan, State Bank of India and Woori Bank.
It should be noted that expatriates had announced to send money in hundi – an illegal cross border transaction system – expressing no confidence in the then Sheikh Hasina-led government.
This move had suddenly reduced the remittance inflow. But after the fall of the Hasina regime, remittance inflow through legal channels has picked up significant steam.
