Capital Market Development
BSEC sceptical about release of 2nd-phase $150m ADB fund
Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission officials have become sceptical about the release of Asian Development Bank’s second phase fund under the Capital Market Development Programme-2 as the proposed Financial Reporting Act 2013 is yet to be placed before the parliament. The ADB, a Manila-based lender, imposed a total of 28 conditions to release $300 million under the CMDP-2.
After 13 conditions were fulfilled, it had released the first phase worth $150 million as budgetary assistance for the government.
BSEC officials said that the ADB had set March 2014 as the deadline to implement all the 15 remaining conditions to release the second phase worth $150 million.
‘We hope that most of the conditions will be fulfilled in time. But, it seems that the proposed Financial Reporting Act- 2013 might not be placed in the parliament before the deadline,’ said a BSEC official.
‘Placing the proposed FRA bill before the parliament is one of the major condition to release the fund,’ he said.
‘The ADB usually did not release fund before all the conditions imposed by them were executed,’ he added.
Finance minister AMA Muhith had already told reporters that the present government would not be able to pass the proposed Financial Reporting Act-2013 in the parliament ‘due to time constraint’.
The FRA, however, had already got approved from the cabinet, which is now in the law ministry for vetting.
Due to objection from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh, the ministry is yet to okay the FRA.
The finance ministry, which has prepared the act aimed at establishing transparency in reporting of financial entities, is now inserting recommendations by the cabinet before placing it again for final approval.
The ADB has also said that it would release the fund early if the government fulfilled the conditions before the deadline.
-With New Age input
