From now on, at least 24 hours prior to the opening of the LC for any product valued at 50 lac or more, relevant import information must be provided to Bangladesh Bank’s Online Import Monitoring Systems (OIMS) on the basis of import invoice or purchase contract information.
The Foreign Exchange Policy Department of Bangladesh Bank issued this order to Authorised Dealer (AD) banks on Thursday (14 July). According to the circular, in case of import of goods worth 50 lac dollars or more, other than government imports, the concerned AD bank must provide the import-related information to OIMS 24 hours before the opening of the LC.
After the start of the Ukraine-Russia war on 24 February, the market price of all types of consumer products including fuel oil, and LP gas has increased at the international level. The cost of transportation has also increased. Due to this, the cost of all types of imports has increased. This has put a strain on the country’s foreign exchange reserves. Reserves fell below 40 billion dollars last week after two years.
The government wants to reduce spending dollars by discouraging the import of non-essential or luxury goods. For this, the import duty on some products has been increased. Bangladesh Bank has issued this circular as part of increased monitoring at the import level.
