PORIMOL PALMA

The more Bangladeshis go abroad for jobs, the more remittance receipts should there be for the country. But the data suggests otherwise.

Let’s start with 2015 when the total number of Bangladeshis who migrated for jobs abroad stood at 555,881, according to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training.

That year, the country received $15.27 billion in remittances, according to data from the Bangladesh Bank.

The following year, 757,731 migrant workers left the shore. But the remittance receipt was 10.9 percent lower at $13.61 billion.

Fast forward to 2021, when a record 1,135,873 Bangladeshis left for jobs abroad. But the remittance inflow was 1.5 percent lower year-on-year at $21.25 billion.

The general government view is that the migrant workers use the informal channel to send money home as they find it easier -- and hence the lower official remittance numbers.

To encourage them to use the formal channel, the government in fiscal 2019-20 introduced a 2 percent cash incentive, which they increased to 2.5 percent in fiscal 2021-22.

It is not clear how this incentive worked but industry insiders give a more practical reading of the contradictory trend of higher overseas jobs and lower remittance.

They say when more workers go abroad, there is a higher demand for hundi in the destination countries.