In the budget 2002-2003, the government announced the incentives to the NRBs with a view to encouraging them to remit more in foreign exchange.

As a follow up of the government announcement an inter-ministerial meeting at the Ministry of Finance in August last year, decided to award CIP status to the NRBs remitting US$ 50,000 annually and RRC to those who remit at least $2,000 annually through official channel.

The meeting was attended by the representatives from Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, Bangladesh Bank and Ministry of Expatriate Welfare And Overseas Employment.

As per the decision the CIP and RRC were supposed to be issued for a one-year period.

The meeting also decided to assign expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry to invite applications from eligible NRBs by September last year. But the ministry failed to act as per the decision, sources alleged.

According to meeting decision a CIP cardholder will be allowed to use VIP lounge of the airport, get cabins in the government hospitals when required, receive consular services in Bangladesh foreign missions and will be invited as guests in all programmes of Bangladesh missions in the country they reside.

The RRC holders will get preference in seat bookings in the national flag carrier, Biman Bangladesh Airlines. Besides, they will get quickest service in the immigration and special luggage handling facilities at airports, according to the decision.

The meeting, however, decided to exclude the NRBs involved in bank loan default, money laundering and convicted in moral grounds, irrespective of the amount they remit, in awarding CIP status and RRC.

In October 2002, the expatriate welfare ministry rejected a proposal from the finance ministry in carrying out the responsibility it was entrusted with. The expatriate ministry argued that there was an acute shortage of manpower in the ministry.

Following the denial, the finance ministry failed in making any further progress up to May, 2003.

Recently, Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman reviewed the earlier decision by slashing 25,000 dollars to become eligible for CIP status from proposed 50,000 dollars but keeping the proposal of 2,000 dollars for getting RRC, sources said.

The finance ministry officials said the recent decision would soon be placed before the cabinet meeting for approval.

If the proposal gets cabinet nod, applications from the eligible NRBs will be invited. A government committee comprising the members from different ministries and banks would then decide the qualified ones from the applicants, sources said.

The committee will also consider observations of Bangladesh missions abroad prior to finally awarding the CIP status and RRC, sources mentioned.

They said that the whole process will be completed within a period of six-month.

"We are not actually responsible for the delay as the case was supposed to be performed by another ministry," a high official in the finance ministry said.

He said, as the finance ministry had been busy with the negotiation for receiving the poverty reduction growth facility (PRGF) loan from the donor agencies and with the preparation to finalise the current fiscal's budget, the delay had been unavoidable.

The NRBs remitted $278.71 crore between July and May of FY2003. The remittance was to the tune of $188.2 crore in FY2001 and $194.93 crore in FY 2000.