Reza Mahmud :
Bangladeshi Diasporas in Malaysia are leaning towards hundi for sending their money to home which caused huge remittance declining in the country.
The migrant workers said that they get more Taka against Malaysian Ringgit from hundi compared with the banking channel.
Migrant workers said that they get Tk 23.50 to 24.05 in April per Ringgit but it was Tk 26 in March.
Besides, they got one more taka from hundi circles, they said.
As a result, the Diasporas in numbers have inclination towards hundi for getting more conversion benefits.
The remittance houses said that though the government is giving 2.5 percent incentives for sending remittance through legal channels, get they are inclined to hundi for higher conversion rate.
The government officials including diplomatic channels tried to inspire the migrant workers in various ways for sending money in legal ways, but numbers of Diasporas found keen to send money by hundi circles for the above mentioned reason.
In March, migrant workers sent 98.80 million US dollar remittance from Malaysia.
But it is forecasted as per the flow that remittance would be 20 percent less in April as result of reducing Taka rate given against Ringgit.
When contacted, Reaz-ul-Islam, Senior Vice-President of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) told The New Nation, “Our migrant workers are working mostly in the remote regions of the c oncern countries where banking facilities are merely absent.”
“As a result, number of the migrants workers send their money through hundi which failed to count as remittance,” the BAIRA leader said.
He said that the hundi circle have a network where the migrant workers and even their families are in trapped. The hundi circle used to go those remote areas to the Bangladeshi workers just their salary payment date and allure and finally compel them to send money through their networks.
When contacted, Md Mezbaul Haque, spoke person of Bangladesh Bank told The New Nation, “It is true that the banking channels are absent in several remote areas working our Diasporas. In this situation, we have finalise the policy for Mobile Financial Services (MFS) so that the Nagads and Bkash and such others providers can operate their apps to send migrant workers money in legal channel.”
He also said that the awareness must to create among the Diasporas so that they send their hard earning money through proper systems.
Once, Malaysia was 5th remittance sending country which now lowered to 7nth.
The migrant workers asked the government to keep the dollar market open so that the migrants could be beneficiary from its values.
The migrants workers mainly working in palm garden or factories in remote areas in the country where branches of bank hard to be found.
They normally are reluctant to go remote towns for sending money by banks getting absent in work places losing daily wages.
The hundi circles take this matter as an advantage.