Remittance incentives: Conversion of local currency allowed


FE Report | Published: November 21, 2019 10:44:32 | Updated: November 26, 2019 11:13:58


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Remitters who will wire $1,500 or equivalent amount of other currencies or Tk 150,000 will be eligible for receiving 2.0 per cent cash incentives without showing any documents.

The amount of local currency has been included in the guidelines regarding cash incentives on wage earners' income, according to a clarification issued by the Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Wednesday.

"We've included the amount of local currency-Bangladesh Taka-in the guidelines in line with the banks' requirements," a BB official told the FE while explaining the main objective of the clarification.

The time for submitting necessary documents for getting cash incentives more than $1,500 has been extended up to 15 working days instead of five earlier.

The documents include passport copies of expatriate Bangladeshi, appointment letter, certificate given from the state-run Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, or BMET, and copy of trade licence in case of remittance generated from business proceeds.

On August 06 last, the central bank issued a directive on providing 2.0 per cent cash incentives for money to be remitted through the banking channel into the country.

The government had already allocated Tk 30.60 billion as incentives in the budget for the fiscal year, 2019-20, to encourage the expatriate workers to send their money through the legal channels.

Meanwhile, the inflow of remittances jumped by more than 20 per cent to $6.15 billion during the July-October period of FY '20 from $ 5.11 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, helped by the incentives.

The ministry of finance has already released Tk 15.30 billion as incentive for the first six months of this fiscal and the reaming Tk 15.30 billion will be released later, officials said.

siddique.islam@gmail.com

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