Due to the dollar crisis, foreign exchange reserves are continuously decreasing. To deal with the situation, the central bank increased the official rate of the dollar by 7 taka to 117 taka last month. This has increased the cost of imports and increases the pressure on the people. However, the remittances increased due to the increase in the dollar rate.
Last May, a total of 225 crore dollars came into the country through banking channels which is the highest in the last 46 months. It is also the second highest ever. Earlier, the highest remittance in a month was 260 crore dollars in July 2020.
According to the data of Bangladesh Bank, in total, in the first 11 months of the current financial year, 2 thousand 137 crore dollars remittances have come. 1941 crore dollars came in the same period of the last financial year. And the amount of remittance in the entire financial year was 2161 crore dollars.
With a month to go, remittances are almost equal to the previous financial year. And up to last May, 196 crore dollars have increased, which is more than 10 percent. Last April, expatriates sent 204 crore dollars through banking channels. 169 crore dollars came in the same month of the previous year. Generally remittances increase every year before Eid.
When asked about this, Syed Mahbubur Rahman, Managing Director of Mutual Trust Bank, said that the difference in bank rates with informal channels has reduced a lot. Banks are trying hard to increase remittances in the current situation. This increases remittances.
It is known that banks are now buying remittances from foreign exchange houses at rates up to 118 taka 30 paisa. Expatriate beneficiaries are getting Tk. 117. Along with this two and a half percent government incentive is getting like Tk.120.
Earlier the price was fixed at Tk. 110 but the banks used to buy at Tk. 113-115. Cost of imports increased further due to increase in export and remittance rates. The pressure on people can increase in this time of inflation which is already 10 percent.
Bankers have doubts about how long remittances will increase if effective measures are not taken to prevent money laundering. The Managing Director of a private bank said, those who take money outside the country through corruption or revenue evasion, the price is not an issue for them. So to increase the remittance in the banking channel, we have to be strict against money laundering and hundi. Instead of doing that just increasing the price will increase the pressure on the common people. Apart from this, initiatives should be taken to bring the export income to the country on time. Apart from this, reserves should be stabilized in various ways including long-term foreign loans.
According to the data of Bangladesh Bank, the foreign exchange reserves decreased continuously on May 29 to 18.72 billion dollars. Reserves at the end of April last month were 19.96 billion dollars. At the end of last December, it was 21.87 billion dollars. Earlier, the highest reserve record in the history of the country was 48 billion dollars in August 2021. Despite import controls in various ways, the central bank is selling a lot of dollars from reserves.
Basically, the private sector does not get new loans; on the contrary, it has to repay the previous liabilities. Many are recouping previous investments. Due to these reasons, there has been a deficit of 9.26 billion dollars as of last March. In the last financial year the deficit was 2.93 billion dollars. Before this there was usually always a fiscal surplus.