Dollar gets costlier for import payments

The Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association has raised the ceiling on the Bills for Collection (BC) selling rate, the rate at which banks make import payments, to Tk 83.35 per dollar from Tk 83.20.

A technical committee of the BAFEDA revised the BC selling rate on Sunday as the US dollar continues to appreciate against the taka at the inter-bank level although the central bank injected more than $1 billion into the market to keep it stable this fiscal year.

The banks yesterday started to implement the decision, meaning importers will have to pay Tk 0.15 more per dollar.

Earlier in November last year, the central bank asked banks not to sell the US dollar at rates higher than Tk 83.20, according to a member of the Bangladesh Bank's technical committee. But the BAFEDA has been forced to reset the rate because of a rising trend of inter-bank exchange rate in recent months, he said.

The central bank also verbally approved the BAFEDA's decision, he said.

Yesterday, the interbank exchange rate stood at Tk 82.90 per dollar, up from Tk 82.80 a week earlier and Tk 78.95 a year earlier, according to data from the central bank.