BD receives $740 million in remittances in 15 days

 
Bangladesh received $740 million in remittances in the first 15 days of September, said Bangladesh Bank.

The country received $1.6 billion in remittance in August. Bangladesh Bank recently warned 10 private banks for higher exchange rate of dollars. So, banks are not taking risks to provide higher exchange rate, resulting in a fall in remittance.

As per data from Bangladesh Bank exposes that expatriates sent $66.4 million in remittances through state-owned banks and $19.88 million via a specialised bank while $650.71 million came through private banks and $2.99 million via foreign banks.

Remittance fell by $373.7 million to about $1.60 billion in August from a little over 1.97 billion in July, the first month of the 2023-24 fiscal.

Bankers said, at present, the exchange rate of dollars is fixed at Tk 109.50 a dollar, and on the top of that there is 2.5 per cent of incentive on remittance, taking dollar exchange rate to Tk 112 a dollar.

However, the price of dollars is over Tk 115 a dollar in hundi as dollar is sold at Tk 117-118 a dollar in the kerb market. If the government maintains the existing exchange rate of dollars, remittance through legal channels will not increase, they insisted.

Bangladesh received $21.62 billion in remittances in the 2022-23 fiscal, $21.03 billion in the 2021-22 fiscal and $24.78 billion in the 2020-21 fiscal.