Autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies have started returning surplus funds to the public exchequer in line with the government's order, officials say.
After the passage of a law in parliament, the government published a gazette on February 12 with immediate effect.
Finance ministry officials said that until now an amount of Tk 55 billion was deposited to the exchequer from the extra funds held by such agencies.
The ministry convenes a meeting today (Tuesday) to review the present situation of returning money and is expected to instruct the organisations to expedite the process.
A senior official of the ministry told the FE the meeting will scrutinise how much money the autonomous, semi-autonomous, and public non-financial corporations had in their funds until December last.
The organisations will be asked to deposit their surplus funds as soon as possible.
The funds will mainly be used for supporting the government's ongoing development activities as tax collection by the National Board of Revenue, or NBR, is lower than expected.
Officials said the Petrobangla was asked to deposit Tk 40 billion from its surplus fund while the Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company was to pay Tk 18.70 billion from the proceeds it got from selling shares.
The state-run oil and gas corporation deposited Tk 10 billion as the first instalment on March 10. The rest of the amount has to be deposited between April and June with the payment of Tk 10 billion each month.
The Bangladesh Power Development Board will have to deposit Tk 20 billion as a surplus fund during fiscal year 2019-20.
The board has been asked to deposit the first instalment amounting to Tk 5.0 billon by mid-June and the remaining Tk 15 billion by June in three instalments.
According to the law, the autonomous, semi-autonomous, and public non-financial corporations will have to deposit surplus fund after keeping total operational expenses, an additional 25 per cent of operational expenses, and expenses related to the development work.
The government has identified 61 such organisations from which surplus funds will be collected.
