Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh Bank (BB) has held the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) accountable for the disappearance of $23.34 billion from the export account over 20 months across two financial years.
In a note to government agencies, Bangladesh Bank explained the rationale for the correction.
The data mismatch significantly impacts other economic indicators, including GDP size, growth rate, and per capita income.
It also indirectly affects investments and employment, as investors look at a country’s growth and consumers’ purchasing power.
According to the EPB, exports were $45.67 billion in the first 10 months of fiscal year 2022-23, but the central bank found the figure to be $36.13 billion, down by $9.54 billion.
Similarly, the EPB claimed $47.47 billion in exports for the first 10 months of 2023-24, while the central bank reported $33.67 billion for the time, showing a $13.80 billion shortfall.
In the letter, Bangladesh Bank stated that the NBR has already observed that there are multiple export accounts in the provided export dataset. The central bank is holding the NBR and EPB accountable for the significant discrepancies in the export data.
The Bangladesh Bank collects export earnings data from the branches of scheduled banks, resulting in minimal discrepancies between the collected data and the actual export figures.
However, the regulator has identified several issues causing discrepancies between the export data reported by the Bangladesh Bank and the data published by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
One significant issue is the repeated entry of the same export data and HS code for products, which inflates the figures.
Additionally, in terms of cutting, making, and trimming, only the manufacturing charges should be accounted for, yet the EPB has included all associated costs, such as fabric, in their calculations.
There have also been instances where the EPB recorded the price of sample products as if they were final goods.
Another discrepancy arises from the EPB’s failure to adjust for factors such as slight reductions in the export credit value, losses from stocklots, discounts, and commissions.
Moreover, the central bank discovered that sales from companies within Export Processing Zones (EPZs) were counted twice—once when the goods were shipped from EPZs to local firms and again during shipment from the ports by exporters.
The central bank’s inquiry also revealed a concerning gap between reported shipment values and the actual money flowing into Bangladesh.
Unlike imports, exports lack a direct revenue connection, which could potentially facilitate money laundering activities through export channels.
Alarmingly, the central bank found multiple erroneous entries in the data, amounting to 20 percent of the total dataset.