Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The government has started availing overdraft (OD) drawing facility from the central bank to meet its day-to-day expenditures.

The government’s account deficit stood at BDT 67 billion as on December 04 that was mitigated by using ways and means advances (WMAs) and OD facility from the central bank, officials said.

Under the existing rules, the government is empowered to borrow up to a maximum amount of BDT 60 billion from the BB using WMAs facility without issuing any securities.

The government has also already availed BDT 7.0 billion as OD facility from the Bangladesh Bank (BB) recently on the same ground.

The limit of OD drawing from the central bank has already been re-fixed at BDT 60 billion from BDT 40 billion earlier.

“But the government bank borrowing situation may be improved today (Monday) after depositing borrowed money with its accounts,” a senior official familiar with the government debt management activities told the BBN in Dhaka.

On Sunday, the government on Sunday borrowed BDT 30 billion through issuing treasury bills (T-bills) to meet its budget deficit partly.

Actually, the government faced deficit balance in its account recently, mainly due to lower revenue collection along with the ongoing falling trend in sales of national savings certificates.

BBN/SSR/AD