What we need to do to boost remittance inflow | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Saturday
June 14, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2025
What we need to do to boost remittance inflow

Economy

Tasneem Siddiqui
07 August, 2022, 09:30 am
Last modified: 07 August, 2022, 09:35 am

Related News

  • Extended Eid holidays may reduce remittance inflows, expatriates turn to unofficial channels
  • Remittance hits second-highest monthly record of $2.97b in May ahead of Eid
  • Bangladeshis in US may suffer as 5% tax proposed on sending remittances by non-citizens
  • How Bangladeshi workers lost $1.3b in remittance fees, exchange rate volatility in 2024
  • Remittance inflow breaks record, hits $25b in 10 months as hundi dominance declines

What we need to do to boost remittance inflow

Tasneem Siddiqui
07 August, 2022, 09:30 am
Last modified: 07 August, 2022, 09:35 am
Tasneem Siddiqui, founding chair, RMMRU. illustration: TBS
Tasneem Siddiqui, founding chair, RMMRU. illustration: TBS

Demand for skilled workforces has been on the rise worldwide and Bangladesh should capitalise on it as these jobs offer higher pays. 

Keeping it at the forefront, we should chalk out long-, medium- and short-term programmes to develop human resources with the necessary training to cater to the different needs of overseas job markets. Thus, we will be able to rake in more remittances. 

To boost remittance inflows in a one-year term, we need to tailor vocational training with overseas markets in mind. 

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

We can impart training to girls with educational qualifications up to HSC, targeting job markets that require women workers alongside domestic help.  

For example, there is a demand for caregiver jobs abroad. Their main duties include administering medications, helping patients complete personal care tasks like bathing, dressing, eating, or grooming, and following the patients' prescribed healthcare plan. It will take six months to one year to prepare a woman with such skills. 

In different countries, there is a need for draftsmen who as assistants to engineers make detailed technical drawings or plans for machinery, buildings, electronics, infrastructure, etc. Europe, the United States, and Australia recruit hairdressers. 

Australia has a quota for appointing hairstylists. Only trained hairdressers can apply for such jobs. It takes up to one year to complete a course on hairdressing. 

But we do not see initiatives for training in those fields in Bangladesh. 

We should always keep a track of which countries are hiring for which positions. For example, they recruit hairdressers in one year and housekeepers in another. We have to prepare our workforce accordingly.  

Now, the migration of skilled workers, including nurses, is happening on a limited scale - the number is only 100-200.  We need to target at least 50,000 for such migration. Then, the government will not have to look back. We need to arrange a special training with a target to train up a big number of people in the first place.

When it comes to medium-term measures, the government has to stop fraud migration, which has increased significantly. For this, there comes a need for holding the middlemen accountable for defrauding migrants of huge amounts of money with false promises.

As an immediate step to boost remittance, we must raise the ceiling on investment in bonds by expatriates.

The government launched the Wage-Earner Development Bond, US Dollar Premium Bond, and US Dollar Investment Bonds that provided a scope of secured investment for non-resident Bangladeshis, but in 2020 the government fixed the investment limit in these bonds at Tk1 crore. 

This policy is one of the reasons why our remittances have decreased. 

The government must revise the policy and allow NRBs to invest up to Tk10 crore or even more. Some NRB investors can also invest Tk20 crore. If we want to increase remittance inflows, we must raise the investment limit for NRBs immediately.

Besides, the government needs to review the various taxes and VAT imposed on the bonds and make them investment-friendly. 

Moreover, cash incentives on remittance through banking channels can be raised to 5% from 2.5%. This can be done only for three months amid the current crisis. If the government provides such a facility, no one will transact money through hundi.


Tasneem Siddiqui, founding chair of RMMRU

Top News

remittance / remittance collection / remittance flow / Remittance Incentives / Remittance inflow / remittance inflows

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Missiles launched from Iran are intercepted as seen from Tel Aviv. REUTERS/Jamal Awad
    Iran fires missiles at Israel in response to attacks; Trump says it's not too late for nuclear deal
  • Logo of National Citizen Party (NCP)
    People won't accept election date before July Charter is implemented: NCP on Yunus-Tarique meeting
  • Yunus-Tarique meeting: Jamaat says outcome positive for democracy, IAB says dispelled uncertainty from politics
    Yunus-Tarique meeting: Jamaat says outcome positive for democracy, IAB says dispelled uncertainty from politics

MOST VIEWED

  • Wreckage of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner showing part of its registration "VT-ANB" in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Amit Dave
    Air India Dreamliner crashes into Ahmedabad college hostel, kills over 290
  • File Photo of Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus: UNB
    Prof Yunus to receive Harmony Award from King Charles today
  • Energy adviser Fouzul Kabir Khan with other government officials during a visit to Sylhet gas field on 13 June 2025. Photo: TBS
    I would disconnect gas supply to every home in Dhaka if I could: Energy adviser
  • Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur. TBS Sketch
    Bangladesh mulls settlements with tycoons over offshore wealth: BB governor tells FT
  • UCB declares no dividend for 2024 to comply with regulatory requirement
    UCB declares no dividend for 2024 to comply with regulatory requirement
  • UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus
    Disclosure of unconfirmed Yunus-Starmer meeting shows ‘diplomatic imprudence’: Analysts

Related News

  • Extended Eid holidays may reduce remittance inflows, expatriates turn to unofficial channels
  • Remittance hits second-highest monthly record of $2.97b in May ahead of Eid
  • Bangladeshis in US may suffer as 5% tax proposed on sending remittances by non-citizens
  • How Bangladeshi workers lost $1.3b in remittance fees, exchange rate volatility in 2024
  • Remittance inflow breaks record, hits $25b in 10 months as hundi dominance declines

Features

Photos: Collected

Kurtis that make a great office wear

13h | Mode
Among pet birds in the country, lovebirds are the most common, and they are also the most numerous in the haat. Photo: Junayet Rashel

Where feathers meet fortune: How a small pigeon stall became Dhaka’s premiere bird market

2d | Panorama
Illustration: Duniya Jahan/ TBS

Forget Katy Perry, here’s Bangladesh’s Ruthba Yasmin shooting for the moon

3d | Features
File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar

Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do

4d | Features

More Videos from TBS

No Cash in ATMs: System Glitch or Something Deeper?

No Cash in ATMs: System Glitch or Something Deeper?

7h | TBS Today
Iran-Israel military power; who is ahead?

Iran-Israel military power; who is ahead?

9h | TBS World
Did the possibility of an Iran nuclear deal set back after the attack?

Did the possibility of an Iran nuclear deal set back after the attack?

10h | TBS World
IRGC chief Major General Hossein Salami killed in Israeli strike

IRGC chief Major General Hossein Salami killed in Israeli strike

12h | TBS World
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net