$959m remittance received in 14 days

Bangladesh’s remittance earnings are witnessing an upward trend since March ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival for Muslims.

As per the latest data from Bangladesh Bank (BB), Bangladeshi expatriates sent $959 million in the first 14 days of April.

A senior official of the central bank said remittance earnings have been going up since the beginning of March mainly due to Eid. Every year, migrants send more money to their relatives ahead of the two Eids and other major festivals.

Remittance inflow had risen to a seven-month high in March ahead of the Eid, which is likely to be observed on April 22 or 23 depending on the moon sighting.

In March, remittance earnings rose by 8.49 per cent year-on-year to $2.01 billion. The inflow was $1.56 billion in February.

During the 14 days of April, the country received the highest amount of remittance — $794 million — through private commercial banks; $134 million through state-owned commercial banks; $26.8 million through specialised banks; and 3.32 million through foreign banks, as per BB data.

The inflow will grow further in the coming days as banks and the banking regulator have recently taken various measures to encourage expatriate Bangladeshis to send their money through the proper banking channel.

Experts, however, pointed out that the remittance inflow is not increasing in proportion to the amount of manpower exported after the Covid-19 pandemic eased. Money laundering and high immigration costs are the key reasons behind this, they added.

Bangladesh have exported a large amount of manpower since 2021, but no positive impact has been seen in the remittance inflow, said Towfiqul Islam Khan, senior research fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.

He added that the trend of money laundering in Bangladesh is very high, which is why remittance inflow is not reaching the expected level.

Bangladesh’s manpower exports reached 6.17 lakh in 2021, according to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET). The country exported 11.35 lakh people in 2022, which was a record high.

The figure was 1.04 lakh in January this year.