Shawdesh Desk:

The government has decided to increase the cash incentive on sending remittance to encourage more migrant workers to send money through legal channels.

The cash bonus for remittances will be increased from 2 percent to 2.5 percent and will take effect from Jan 1, according to a notice from the Ministry of Finance issued on Saturday.

The ministry called the decision a ‘New Year’s gift from the prime minister to expatriate workers’.

The decision is expected to improve the overall living standards of common people, boosting the foreign currency reserves, checking money laundering, generating employment, the notice said.

Following the policy’s introduction, inward remittances increased 13 percent to $16.2 billion in FY2020 from a year earlier. In FY2021, the remittance inflow rose 36 percent year-on-year to $24.6 billion.