Staff Reporter:
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal Thursday expected the foreign exchange reserve situation to improve soon with enhanced export income and remittance alongside lowered import growth rate.
“The growth in imports has declined and is returning to normal. Concurrently, we are carrying out export promotional activities to augment our export income. Steps are being taken for disbursement of foreign loans in the pipeline,” he told parliament, presenting the proposed budget for the 20023-2024 fiscal.
The finance minister added: “Hopefully, the reserve situation will improve in a short period of time.”
Kamal said Bangladesh wants to lay greater emphasis on maintaining macroeconomic stability while the goal is to achieve high growth.
“The instability in the balance of payment has lessened,” he said attributing the development to the government’s “time-befitting strategy” and added “we will remain cautious and adopt an accommodative policy in the coming financial year as well”.
The finance minister said works were underway to bring to a minimum level the gap between the existing multiple exchange rates with an eventual aim of making the exchange rate gradually market-oriented.
He said the government would continue to monitor the procedural requirements on LC opening, disposal and related issues to verify accuracy of the price of imported items as part of efforts to rebuild the foreign exchange reserves.
The finance minster said with an identical goal, a 2.5 percent incentive is provided and remitter-friendly processes like the mobile financial services are being promoted to encourage the use of formal channels in sending remittances.
“All fees required for sending remittances through the Bangladeshi banks and exchange houses have been exempted. Thanks to these initiatives, our remittance income is on the increase,” he added.
