Cabinet okays draft law scrapping age limit for BB governor

The cabinet yesterday in principle approved the draft of "the Bangladesh Bank (Amendment) Act, 2020" by abolishing the 'proviso' of the 65-year age limit for the governor of central bank.

The approval came at the regular cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, Cabinet Secretary Khandaker Anwarul Islam told a press briefing after the meeting at Bangladesh Secretariat.

According to the provision of clause (5) of the Article 10 of The Bangladesh Bank Order, 1972 (President's Order No. 127 of 1972), the tenure of the central bank governor is four years and he or she could be given reappointment, Islam said.

"But the 'proviso' of that clause mentioned that no person can hold the post of the governor after completion of 65 years of his/her age."

The cabinet secretary said an experienced person is appointed in the financial sector as the governor.

"But it's not possible to appoint an efficient and experienced person in the financial sector after his/her 65 years of age as the current law has fixed the highest age limit at 65 years," he said.

Even it is not possible to reappoint an experienced person who performed the responsibility of the governor at the Bangladesh Bank, Islam said.

In this connection, he referred that the highest age limit of the governor of central bank of neighbouring countries of India and Sri Lanka has not been mentioned.

"In this circumstances, an initiative has been taken to scrap the proviso of clause (5) of the Article 10 of The Bangladesh Bank Order, 1972 (President's Order No. 127 of 1972) related to the highest age limit of the central bank governor in the public interest," the cabinet secretary said.