Mar 11,2020
Bangladeshis employed in local, foreign agencies abroad to get remittance incentive
The Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday declared Bangladeshi citizens employed in local and foreign airlines and shipping companies abroad eligible for 2 per cent cash incentive against remittance.
Besides, the Bangladeshi citizens employed in different missions of organisations like the United Nations were also declared eligible for the cash incentives against the money they send legally to the country.
However, government employees or employees of state-owned entities working abroad would not be eligible for the cash incentive, a BB circular issued in this regard said.
The government announced the incentive in the national budget for the fiscal year 2019-2020 to encourage remittance of money to the country through legal channels.
In line with the government’s budgetary announcement, the central bank on August 6 this year issued guidelines on issuance of the incentive against inward remittance to encourage repatriation of earnings by the expatriates through legal channels, setting July 1, 2019 as the effective date.
Riding on the incentive, remittance inflow rose by 20.06 per cent or $2.09 billion year-on-year in July-February of the fiscal year 2019-2020.
In the eight months of FY20, the country received $12.5 billion in remittance from the Bangladeshi expatriates working abroad against $10.41 billion received in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
At a recent programme organised by Sonali Bank, BB governor Fazle Kabir mentioned that the country was heading towards attaining $20 billion in remittance earnings in the current fiscal year.
In FY19, remittance inflow hit a record $16.4 billion, surpassing the previous highest of $15.32 billion in FY15.
With the help of remittance earnings and shrinking import payments, the country’s foreign currency reserve reached the $33-billion mark for the first time in two years at the end of February this year.
In a separate circular, the central bank on Wednesday allowed foreigners working in the country’s export processing zones, economic zones and hi-tech parks to repatriate their net earnings from their foreign currency accounts maintained and operated as per the BB’s Guidelines for Foreign Exchange Transactions.
The remunerations or wages of foreign employees can only be transferred from the foreign currency accounts of companies located in EPZs, EZs and HTPs.
The foreign employees would be allowed to remit 75 per cent of their net income, the BB circular said.
The balance in the foreign currency account would be freely encashable in taka for local expenses, it said, adding that the purchase of air tickets will be kept outside the family remittance limit calculation.
