The sales of foreign digital items through local e-commerce platforms are allowed if such items were procured from abroad through following legal procedure.
The central bank clarified it in a circular on Thursday.
The digital items or services include e-book, music, research and data, and software programmes.
This type of sales shall contravene the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Regulation (FER) Act, 1947 unless settlement of payments against the procurement for commercial trading from external sources has been made by outward remittance through banking channel under general authorisation, according to the circular.
"This clarification aims to identify illegal payments against purchase of digital contents from overseas sources," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
The circular also reads: "It is observed that digital items are on display at e-Commerce market places/platforms for sales to the residents against payments in local currency."
The procurements are subject to payment of applicable duties, taxes and other levies, it added.
The digital items, purchased under individual or corporate entitlements of foreign exchange, cannot be placed at e-commerce marketplaces for sales.
Customers' due diligence needs to be monitored along with AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism) provisions before uploading merchants to marketplaces or platforms, according to the circular.
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