Banks withdraw service charge on remittance

Staff Reporter :
Banks have decided to withdraw service charge on remittances sent home by expatriate Bangladeshis with a view to increasing the inflow of foreign currencies.
Besides, banks will also keep open their exchange houses located on foreign locations during holidays to enable migrant workers remit money smoothly.
The decision was taken at a meeting between the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers’ Association (BAFEDA) and the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh at Sonali Bank’s head office in the capital yesterday.
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.
He said banks usually take $1 to $2 as service charge from the remitters based on the amount of remittances and number of transactions.
But from now on, there will be no such service charge, he said.
On top of that, expats can visit exchange houses of local banks during their holidays as the outlets will remain open on the days, said Karim, who is also the managing director of Sonali Bank.
Banks in Bangladesh have been facing an acute shortage of US dollars in recent days thanks to the higher import payments against the lower-than-expected export earnings and the downward trend of remittances. Remittances to Bangladesh declined by 7.4 per cent year-on-year to $1.52 billion in October.
In July, Bangladesh received $2.09 billion remittances, which was the highest in 14 months. In August, expatriates sent $2.03 billion in remittances, up 12.58 per cent year on year.
In September, inward remittances decreased by 10.84 per cent year-on-year.
Bangladesh saw inward remittance slump by 15.12 per per cent to $21.03 billion year on year in 2021-22 after growing by more than 36 per cent to $24.78 billion in 2020-21.
Analysts said the decline in remittances intensified pressure on both the government and Bangladesh Bank as the country is struggling to manage its macroeconomic stability owing to the higher inflation and US dollar shortages.
However, the government took several steps to boost the remittance inflow in FY22. One of those was no requirement of showing any document to send money home.