BB allows import of 8 Ramzan items on deferred payment

Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh Bank (BB) has given the opportunity to import eight essential commodities on deferred payment basis ahead of holy Ramzan.
These commodities are edible oil, chickpeas, pulses, peas, onions, spices, sugar and date.
BB announced such facilities for the traders through a circular, issued by its Foreign Exchange Policy Department (FEPD) on Tuesday.
 “The central bank has given this privilege to the authorised importers to make the supply of these commodities available during the Ramzan and to keep their prices at tolerable level,” said BB’s FEPD director Md Sarwar Hossain.
Under the facility, the authorised dealers will be allowed to open Letter of Credits (LCs) for the import of these goods on deferred payment terms up to 90 days under suppliers/buyers’ credit scheme.
The facility will remain applicable for the date of initiation of imports till March 31, in 2023.
Earlier, BB directed all commercial banks to relax the cash margin rate against the opening of import letters of credit (LC) for the above mentioned commodities at the minimum level to keep their prices at a tolerable level during the upcoming Ramzan.
In a circular issued to this effect on Sunday, BB asked all banks to keep the opening margin rate at the minimum level based on banker-customer relations.
Demand for edible oil, sugar, gram, lentil, pea, onion, spices and date usually go up during Ramzan. Besides, traders have a tendency to increase prices of these Ramzan items through market manipulation in order to make excessive profit.
According to Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC), Bangladesh needs around 18 lakh tonnes of sugar annually, of which around three lakh tonnes are consumed during Ramzan.
Besides, the country has a demand for 2.2 to 2.4 tonnes of edible oil, of which three and a half lakh tonnes are consumed during Ramzan.
Similarly, the country’s annual demand for onion is 25 lakh tonnes and and the demand of Ramzan is five lakh tonnes.
Importers say that the country’s yearly lentil requirement is around 6-7 lakh tonnes and during the Ramzan, the demand of the commodity is around 80 thousand tonnes.The country has a demand for Tk1.40 lakh tonnes of chickpea annually. Out of the annual demand 80,000 tonnes are consumed in Ramzan and this demand is rising every year.