Bangladesh received US $1642.75 million (1.64 billion) inward remittance till July 21, thanks to Eid-ul-Azha when Bangladeshi migrants sent more money to families to celebrate one of the biggest festival of Muslims, according to data from Bangladesh Bank.

It means, on an average the expatriates sent $78.22 million remittance in to the country during July 01-21, the opening month of the fiscal year 2022-23.

In June, the last month of the fiscal year, the expatriates sent home $1.83 billion remittance through the banking channel, said the BB figures available on Monday.

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Bangladesh received the highest $24.77 billion remittance in FY2020-21, amid global travel restrictions amid Covid-19 pandemic.

In FY 22 remittance income fell to $21.03 billion following the lifting of travel restrictions and sending of money through unofficial channels, people involved with the issue said.

The sector insiders and experts suspected that around $2 billion remittances entered Bangladesh through unofficial routes despite stimulus incentives offered by the government to use official channel.

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Sources said a good number of Bangladeshi workers in the Middle East, Malaysia, the USA and Europe failed to send money through proper baking channels for lack of valid documents.

This led to the increasing use of illegal hundi and other informal channels by the expatriates, they said speaking on conditioned they can’t be identified.

According to BB, during July 1 and 21 , six state-owned bank received $254.92 million inward remittance, 2 specialized banks received $27.69 million, and 41 private commercial banks received $1356.22 million while 9 foreign commercial banks received $3.94 million.