The charge is cash out of the salary of the worker-employee

The government has announced a special incentive package of Tk 5,000 crore for the salaries of workers and employees of export-oriented industries affected by the coronavirus. Under this package, the central bank has fixed a charge of Tk 8 per thousand for mobile banking cash out of salaries and allowances of workers and employees. A maximum of 4 rupees can be taken from the workers. The remaining 4 rupees will be given by the lending bank.

At present, a charge of Tk 18 to Tk 20 per thousand is deducted for cash out from mobile banking accounts. Which is later divided between the service provider bank, agent and MNO. With the approval of Bangladesh Bank, 15 mobile banking companies including bKash and Rocket are currently providing services. Recently, the cash of the postal department has also received interim approval from the central bank.

The circular sent to the chief executives of the companies said that the government has directed to pay the special loan facility to the workers through bank or mobile financial services (MFS) accounts to pay the salaries and allowances of the workers of export-oriented industries. Under this scheme, MFS operators (including cash) are being requested to adopt the policy of only hardship recovery or subsidy in case of collection of tolls considering the interest of the workers in case of cash-out of paid salaries and allowances. In this case, MFS operators are being instructed to charge 60 paisa at 100 rupees for cash out of salary allowance paid under this scheme. Of this, the lending banks will pay 40 paise to the MFS operators from their commission. The remaining 40 paise will be recoverable from the customer.

The government has set up a fund of Tk 5,000 crore at a one-time interest rate of 2 per cent to pay salaries and allowances to the workers of those industries where at least 60 per cent of the products are exported. Institutions interested in borrowing from the fund are asked to apply by April 20. Many organizations have already applied. Several organizations interested in borrowing have requested an extension of the application period.