UAE officials raid shops, slap fines for sending money to Bangladesh bypassing laws

Officials of the Department of Economic Development of the United Arab Emirate have raided and fined 25 shopkeepers for using a mobile app to illegally transfer money to Bangladesh.

A Gulf News report said that the department raided the shops located in various parts of Dubai on Saturday and fined the shopkeepers and impounded the mobile phones used for the purpose.

The newspaper, quoting department authorities, said that the shops used an app called 'Bkash' that makes money transfer by expats back home possible at a very nominal price.

Acting on a tip-off, the department authorities while conducting the raids, found that none of the shops had permits to transfer money abroad.

The department's Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection affairs CEO Mohammad Ali Rashid Lootah said that these shops would issue advertisements in Bengali to hoodwink UAE officials.

No receipts were issued to those who availed the services, and a mere entry of the amount of money, name and address of the sender was noted on plain paper while the money was transferred electronically. 

The cell phones that are used for the purpose are installed with Bangladeshi SIM cards and then sent to UAE after installing the app.  

He said that sending money in this manner is detrimental both to the economy of UAE as well as to those who send money in this way.