Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– The central bank of Bangladesh has asked the commercial banks to take effective measures for expeditious realization of their export proceeds to help meet the growing demand for liquidity in the market.
The advice came at a bankers meeting held in the central bank on Wednesday with Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Atiur Rahman in the chair.
The central bank has taken the latest move against the backdrop of a big gap between export shipments and receipts, involving nearly US$2.0 billion, officials said.
“We’ve requested the top bankers to make sure the officials at the export desks work more aggressively in the collection of export proceeds,” Senior Deputy Governor of the BB Nazrul Huda told reports after the meeting.
It is not irregularity, he said, adding that the existing Foreign Exchange Regulation Act allows up to four months for export proceeds repatriation. However, due process of collection of export bills payable at sight should normally take not more than a month.
“The banks themselves can and should do much more to improve market liquidity further, just taking steps for quicker repatriation of proceeds of booming exports of their clients,” the BB Governor Atiur Rahman said while speaking at the meeting.
He also urged the chief executive officers of the banks to make sure that export desk staffs of their foreign exchange branches, officially known as AD branches, are active in timely collection of export bills from abroad as the import desk staffs do for meeting the import bill payments.
BBN/SSR/AD-12May11-8:45 pm (BST)
