Reporter Name 
Remittances fell drastically in September 2023. Expatriate Bangladeshis sent remittances of 134 crore dollars during this month through banks and proper channels. This figure of remittances is lowest in Bangladesh compared to last forty months. Remittances of 109 crore dollars came into Bangladesh in April 2020.
Remittance from Saudi Arabia has dropped by 21% in recent months. Remittance from United Arab Emirates (UAE) has declined by 41%. Remittance from United Kingdom has decreased by more than 15%. Remittance from Qatar has gone down by around 10%. Remittance from Malaysia has nosedived by nearly 55%. World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have predicted that Bangladesh’s inflation may further worsen if effective economic measures are not implemented immediately.
On the other hand, money laundering from Bangladesh to foreign countries has increased on an unnaturally egregious scale, financial sources have informed. Reportedly 4 lakh 36 thousand crore taka have been illegally transferred from Bangladesh to overseas locations during last few years. On an average every year nearly 73 thousand crore taka is being laundered from Bangladesh to foreign destinations.
Bangladesh is now facing a trade deficit of 36 billion dollars. Money laundering is one of the major reasons behind the burgeoning trade deficit in the country.
Financial experts have said that the list of the top money launderers of Bangladesh and the amounts they transferred abroad illegally should be exposed. At the same time required steps should be taken by Bangladesh government without delay to retrieve the laundered funds from overseas, economists have commented.
Bangladesh’s banking sector is inflicted with nearly 2 trillion taka defaulted loans including written off debts. Economists have remarked that most of the defaulted loans might have been laundered to overseas locations.
Financial scholars have blamed extreme lack of good governance and accountability in the country’s financial and banking sectors for the extensively rising figures of unlawfully transferred money from Bangladesh to foreign countries.
Financial experts have referred to political influence and inefficiency of Finance Ministry and Bangladesh Bank as principal causes behind money laundering. In recent times it has been exposed by relevant sources that a powerful group of money launderers are making false shipment papers and fake invoices to facilitate illegal money transfer from Bangladesh to overseas destinations.
Under-invoicing and over-invoicing are another two ways utilized by financial culprits for transferring money to foreign countries through unauthorized conduits.Financial sources have said that Bangladesh became a member of Egmont Group headquartered in Canada in 2013 to exchange information about money laundering and terror finance. Egmont Group has 147 member countries. Bangladesh can seek cooperation from Egmont Group for bringing back laundered money.
