Remittance stumbles in the month of Eid

Expatriate Bangladeshis send a large amount of remittances to the country before Eid every year. But this time it was a different picture. Relatively less remittances came in the month of Eid-ul-Fitr. In the recently concluded month of April, 168 billion US dollars worth of remittances came through legal channels or banking channels. This number is less than the two periods in March of this year and April of the previous year.

This information was revealed in the updated statistics of the Central Bank published on Tuesday (May 2).

According to the data of the central bank, remittances of 1.68 billion 3.4 million US dollars have arrived in the country in April. According to the current exchange rate of Bangladeshi currency (Tk 107 per dollar), this amount is Tk 18 thousand crores. This figure is 333.39 million dollars less than the previous month. In March, remittances came in at $202.25 million. At the same time, compared to the same month of the previous year, the remittance has decreased by 32 million 27 million dollars. Last year during Eid-ul-Fitr, i.e. in April 2022, remittances were 201.8 million dollars.

When asked about the sudden drop in remittances during Eid, Mehbaul Haque, executive director and spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank, said that usually the flow of remittances increases during Eid. This time too the remittance flow was high at the beginning of the month. But it has decreased in the end. The department concerned has already been asked to look into why the remittances are down. It is seen whether remittances have decreased overall or remittance flows from a particular country have decreased. We can take action in this regard if we get specific information.

According to the published data, in April, 24 crore 45 million dollars were remitted through state-owned banks, 4 crore 99 million dollars through a specialized bank, 138 million 35 million dollars came through private banks and 5.53 million dollars came through foreign banks.

The highest remittances in April came through Islami Bank as always. 42 million 23 million dollars came through the bank during the mentioned period. Then Agrani Bank 9 crore 83 lakh, BRAC Bank 7 crore 81 lakh, Dutch-Bangla Bank 7 crore 67 lakh and Sonali Bank 6 crore 90 lakh dollars expatriate income.

No remittances have come through Government BDBL, Rajshahi Agricultural Development Bank, Police Community Bank, foreign Habib Bank, National Bank of Pakistan and State Bank of India during the period under discussion.

In the 10 months from July to April of the financial year 2022-23, total remittances came to 1 thousand 771 crore 85 million US dollars. In the same period of the previous financial year, remittances came in at $1,730 million. About 41 million USD remittances have come in during the period under discussion.

In the financial year 2021-2022, the total remittances came to 2 thousand 103 crore 17 lakh US dollars. Earlier, the amount of remittance collection in the financial year 2020-21 was 2 thousand 477 crore 77 million US dollars.

Meanwhile, due to the dollar crisis and low remittance flow, the amount of foreign exchange reserves is decreasing. Until last April 26, the country's reserves fell to 3 thousand 106 crores (31.06 billion dollars). However, if the reserves are calculated according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) terms, the reserves will be reduced by another 7 billion. Accordingly, the actual reserves are now 24 billion dollars.

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