Inward remittance through mobile financial services has declined 2.72% to Tk7.50 crore in April from March, according to the latest Bangladesh Bank data.
In March the amount of the country’s inward remittance through MFS was Tk7.71 crore.
The data shows that the country received a total of $10.28bn as remittance during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, which also marked a decline 16.08% year-on-year.
“There may be several reasons behind the fall of inward remittance. The reasons may include decline of expatriates’ income, depreciation of currencies in the Middle East against US dollars and cut in oil prices,” Bangladesh Bank Executive Director Subhankar Saha told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said Bangladesh Bank’s recent move against “digital hundi” might also have contributed to fall in remittance through MFS.
Besides, the central bank lowered the ceiling of mobile banking transaction in January this year along with other several restrictions intended to bring about discipline into the sector and check the use of “digital hundi.”
A maximum of Tk15,000 can be deposited to a mobile wallet each day and Tk10,000 taken out -- down from the previous daily ceiling of Tk25,000 for both the purposes.
Besides, the central bank directed the mobile financial service providers not to open more than one account with a single national identity card.
However, a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank declined to agree with the logic that lowering of transaction limit was responsible for fall in remittance inflow through MFS.
He argued: “Such lowering of transaction limit may rather have increased the number of mobile banking accounts.”
The central bank report showed that the total transaction through MFS fell 0.1% to Tk25,022.08 crore in April from Tk25,046.67 crore in March.
The daily average transaction, however, increased 3.23% to Tk834 crore in April from Tk807 crore in March.
The number of active accounts increased to 25.5m in April from 24.57m in March, according to the central bank data.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
