Top business houses in a meeting with Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Monday sought several facilities including foreign exchange support from the forex reserve to import essential commodities and moratorium on loan repayments up to June 2023.
Though Bangladesh exported a record $5 billion worth of goods in November, the traders sought the moratorium, which is similar to deferment, when a lender allows deferred loan repayments for a specific period. Usually, the reason involves some kind of financial hardship, but it was also allowed during the pandemic period.
After the meeting, president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) Md Jasim Uddin told reporters, “In Ramadan requires many other products besides essential commodities. That's why I asked for ease of import and requested to provide foreign exchange assistance from reserves for opening LC from the reserve if required.”
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Bangladesh Bank has assured to do so, he said.
The BB Executive Director and Spokesperson Mezbaul Haque told UNB that the global context and the current economic situation of the country were discussed in the meeting.
“FBCCI has sought policy benefits. We will consider FBCCI matters. But no decision has been taken till now,” he said.
Jasim also said that production has been disrupted due to the energy and gas crisis. Due to these factors, the factories cannot be run. Raw material cannot be imported due to LC complexity. This has an impact on business.
“If you can't do business, you can't pay the loan instalments. So the differed loan repayment facility should be extended till June next year. So that no one would become a defaulter. If the customer defaults, the bank will also default. So I think it is logical to increase the loan repayment time.”
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The business leader also sought a single rate of dollar resolving the existing several rates of dollar for LC opening and another purpose.
Responding to a question regarding the interest rate cap, the FBCCI president said that if the interest rate is low, investment is high.
“So I don't see the need to lift the interest rate cap now. For this reason, I have requested that the interest rate cap should not be lifted for the next one year,” he added.