Remittance sending gets cheaper

Banks in Bangladesh yesterday decided to withdraw the service charge on remittance with a view to giving a boost to the inflow of money sent by expatriate Bangladeshis. 

Besides, banks will also keep their overseas exchange houses open during holidays so that migrant workers can remit money smoothly.

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The decision was taken at a meeting between the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association (Bafeda) and the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB) at the Sonali Bank's head office in the capital.

Md Afzal Karim, chairman of the Bafeda, an organisation that implements foreign exchange-related policies, announced the decisions at a media briefing after the meeting.

Banks usually impose services charges between $1 and $2 on remitters.

"But from now on, such a service charge will not be imposed in order to encourage expatriates to send remittance through the banking channel," said Karim.

On top of that, expatriates can visit the exchange houses of local banks during holidays as the outlets will remain open on those days, said Karim, also the managing director of Sonali Bank.

The moves come as banks in Bangladesh are facing an acute shortage of US dollars because of higher import payments against lower export and remittance receipts.  Remittances declined 7.4 per cent year-on-year to $1.52 billion in October and fell 2.03 per cent to $7.19 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year.

As a result, the country's foreign exchange reserves stood at $35.73 billion on November 2, down 23 per cent from a year earlier.

The Bafeda and the ABB also refixed the exchange rate for exporters yesterday.

Under the new rate, exporters will get Tk 100 for each US dollar, compared to Tk 99.50 now.

Importers will have to buy the greenback based on the weighted average exchange rate plus Tk 1. The average rate will be decided based on the rates paid to exporters and exchange houses.