Facilities for expatriate workers in the banking channels have to be ensured to increase remittance flow through formal channels.
Speakers said this at a seminar titled ‘Measures to increase remittance flow through legal ways easily and securely via digital medium’. The seminar was organised by the Economic Reporters Forum (ERF).
The chief guest of the programme, planning minister MA Mannan, however questioned whether money is being siphoned off to expatriates through Hundi and that same money is being sent back to the country through the formal channels for the sake of incentive.
The government provides 2.5 per cent incentive for sending remittance through the legal channels.
PRI executive director Ahsan H Mansur advised on raising digital knowledge among expatriate workers to increase remittance flow. This will encourage them to send money through the banking channels, he said.
SANEM chairman Bazlul Haque Khondker in his keynote paper said, about 49 per cent of the remittance arrives in the country through illegal channels as the expatriate workers prefer sending money in informal ways for it’s faster, cheaper, more profiting and tax-free.
ERF chairman Sharmin Rinvi presided over the seminar, that was anchored by its general secretary Rashidul Islam.
