Rules eased for exporters to keep dollars

Bangladesh Bank today said exporters can now retain value-added amount of export proceeds in US dollars for 30 days instead of 15 days.

The value-added amount refers to the export proceeds that are available to exporters after their import bills for back-to-back letters of credit have been met.

Earlier in August, the central bank asked exporters not to retain the value-added portion more than 15 days in order to stabilise the country's foreign exchange market. 

The country's foreign exchange market has been facing an instable situation in recent months, which is why the Bangladesh Bank had asked exporters for encashment of their value-added amount within 15 days.

This measure helped the banking sector to get an additional amount of dollars during the volatile situation in the market.

But the volatility has recently eased to some degree, so the BB has extended the timeframe to retain the dollar, a central bank official said.

The BB's decision will also help exporters to tackle the losses stemming from the fluctuation of the exchange rate between the dollar and the taka.

In addition, the central bank yesterday permitted exporters to transfer value-added portion of export proceeds to other banks for settlement of import bills or liabilities of export development fund.

Many exporters had used to sell their export proceeds to banks that offer the higher rate, creating indiscipline in the foreign exchange market.

Under such a situation, this prompted the BB in May to instruct exporters to sell their export proceeds to the banks through which they ship goods.