Bangladesh receives record $24.78bn in remittances in FY21

Bangladesh’s inward remittances reached all-time high in the just concluded fiscal year ended on June 30 amid a speculation that the inflow of money from abroad would be hit hard because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The country fetched nearly $24.78 billion in FY 2020-21 in remittances, up by over 36 percent than the last year, according to Bangladesh Bank statistics released on Monday.

The sum is equivalent to over Tk 2 lakh crore, which is higher than the country’s total development budget allocated for the last fiscal year. Bangladesh can build more than four Padma Bridges with this fund.

Indeed, this strong inward flow of remittance, sent by the millions of expatriates, has played a key role to protect the nation, especially the rural economy during this extremely challenging time, officials said.

Economists and migration experts said there was an unexpected rise in remittance during the Covid-19 period owing to several factors.

They said that a big chunk of the amount accompanied the workers who came home during the pandemic.

The government’s move to provide 2 percent incentive to the beneficiaries to discourage illegal ‘hundi’ (informal way of transferring money) has worked well, they said.

Some experts believe expatriates remitted the money generously thinking their families were facing financial hardship because of Covid-19 fallout.

“The workers sent a maximum amount of money back home to support their family members as Covid-19 had affected their incomes,” said Bangladesh Bank’s former governor Dr Salahuddin Ahmed.

Expatriate Bangladeshis have transferred their money through formal channels fearing uncertain delivery through non-formal channels during this time of economic hardship, he explained.

High inward remittances and low import payments have also taken the country’s foreign exchange reserve to nearly $46.43 billion.