The central bank has extended policy supports further by three months to June 30 from March 31 this year to facilitate the country’s export trade amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, officials said.
It has decided to continue its policy supports till June 30 instead of March 31 mainly due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, according to a notification, issued by the Bangladesh Bank (BB), on Sunday.
Under the policy supports, time for repatriation of export proceeds is extendable to 210 days from the date of shipment instead of 120 days earlier.
Back to back letters of credit (LCs) opened under supplier’s/buyer’s credit are extendable to 180 days more within permissible rate of interest.
This facility will be available on bonafide grounds necessitating extended period to settle import payments, according to the BB officials.
Loan from Export Development Fund (EDF) is extendable to additional 180 days instead of 90 days.
Refinancing from EDF up to 180 days is allowable in case of justifiable grounds required for settlement of import payments against back to back LCs opened under supplier's/buyer’s credit.
“We’ve extended our different policy supports up to June 30 instead of March 31, 2021 aiming to give extra comfort to the exporters,” a BB senior official told the FE while explaining the main objective of the extended policy supports.
