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Move to up remittance thru' legal channels

Rejaul Karim Byron
In a bid to increase remittance inflow through legal channels, Bangladesh Bank (BB) is going to divide the countries across the world into five zones and introduce reward worth Tk 30 lakh to a remitter from each zone.
The BB has prepared a proposal for remittance reward and planned to select one remitter from each zone through lottery. The central bank has sent the proposal to all banks for their opinions.
According to the proposal. Zone A will include the Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar, while Zone B will be comprised of Far Eastern countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan.
European countries like Italy, the UK, Sweden, Spain, Greece, Rumania and Poland will fall in ZoneC, while Zone D will consist of South and Northern American countries, and Zone E will include Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
The BB proposal said initially the lottery will be introduced to the remitters working in the Middle -ast countries who mainly send / money home through informal channels.
(midually the lottery process will
expand to other zones after having success in Zone A countries, the proposal said
There will be only one prize for each zone in each draw. The reward money will be Tk 30 lakh for every zone in every draw.
"The reward amount will be underwritten by the BB and supplemented in whole or in part by voluntary commercial banks' sponsors. Banks' contributions would be expected to be equivalent to their proportionate shares of remittance taka volume transacted by all banks during the lottery draw period," the proposal said.
The banks that will not contrib-
ute accordingly will not be allowed to participate in the reward programme, and their remitters will not be included in the lottery process.
The BB proposal said as presently remittances have become a major source of earning for banks and such lottery is expected to increase the remittance flow through banking channel, banks will be requested to voluntarily support the lottery process.
"As underwriter, BB will provide any shortfall in the required funding. Banks will fund their proportionate shares one week prior to the draw to allow the central bank to
calculate the shortfall," said the proposal.
The draw will be held four times a year for each zone.
"A zone and country wise database containing the details of the remitters will be collected from the commercial banks. Banks will be requested to make the primary list of eligible participants by taking the remitters' data from the overseas exchange house with whom they have arrangement," according to the proposal.
Names and remittance ID number of the migrant workers (along with the beneficiaries' names) who will send remittance in a particular quarter (like June to August) will be taken for the draw.
Banks will be asked to send such data in soft and hard forms where hard form should be certified and signed in each page by bank's authorised officer. The cut out time to send such data will be one month from ending of the particular quarter. Banks failing to send remittance data within the stipulated time will not be considered for the draw and will not be required to provide funding.
"The draw process would be staged to attract as much publicity as possible. The draw shall take place on BB premises and will be broadcast in those countries for which the draw is made," the proposal said.