New initiative on remittance costs

Bangla Press Desk:   Bangladesh Bank has taken a new initiative to increase the flow of remittances sent by expatriates and control the overall cost of sending remittances. For this purpose, the central bank will collect information on the overall cost of all types of remittances sent by expatriates from commercial banks.

Commercial banks have been instructed to send information and data on each transaction of remittances sent by expatriates from abroad through exchange houses or other processes to the central bank. For this purpose, the central bank has made two separate tables. According to this table, daily information must be sent to the central bank by 12 noon on the next day.

A circular in this regard was issued by Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday and sent to the chief executives of commercial banks. The circular stated that this instruction will be effective from January 1.

Sources said that currently the World Bank is collecting the cost of remittances sent by expatriates from different countries. It can be seen that the cost of remittances sent to different countries, including Bangladesh, is increasing. Now the central bank is collecting this information to control the cost.

Banks or exchanges of different countries are imposing different types of fees in sending remittances. There is also a provision for imposing taxes against this. Banks in the country are also charging various types of service charges against transactions. Due to these reasons, the cost of sending remittances is increasing.

The circular states that information on every transaction sent by expatriates daily must be sent to the Central Bank by 12 noon on the next day. The lists of exchange houses or banks from which the country's commercial banks collect remittances from abroad must also be updated and regularly informed to the Central Bank.

In sending this information to the Central Bank, the banks must provide the date, name of the bank or exchange house sending the remittance, transaction instruments, method of collecting the remittance money, amount of remittance in Taka, amount of incentive in Taka, exchange rate against the dollar, amount of remittance in Dollar, in which currency the remittance was sent, remittance fee, VAT or tax imposed against the remittance, other costs in Taka, total remittance costs in Taka and total remittance costs in Dollar.

Sources said that after collecting this information, the central bank will review and decide how to reduce the cost of sending remittances to expatriates. Currently, banks are not able to collect any fees for transferring remittances from expatriates to their accounts in the country. As a result, it has been possible to reduce the cost to some extent. In addition, foreign exchange houses are determining the exchange rate of foreign currencies differently for sending remittances. Steps will be taken to bring equality in this case too.

BP/TD