The country’s imports increased by 13.34 per cent in the first seven months of the current fiscal year 2013-14 compared with that of a negative growth of 11.22 per cent in the corresponding period of the FY 2012-13. According to the latest Bangladesh Bank data, settlement of letters of credit, or generally known as actual imports, stood at $21.21 billion in July-January of the FY14 against that of $18.72 billion in the same period of the FY13.
BB officials told New Age on Sunday that higher import of food grains and capital machinery mainly pushed up the overall imports in the first seven months of the FY14.
LC opening, or generally known as import orders, in the first seven months of the FY14 also posted a growth of 10.55 per cent compared with that of a negative growth of 4.26 per cent in the same period of the FY13.
LCs worth $22.42 billion were opened in July-January of the FY14 against the LCs worth $20.28 billion opened in the corresponding period of the FY13.
The BB data showed that import of food grains (rice and wheat) increased by 114.83 per cent in July-January of the FY14 compared with that of a 40.33-per cent negative growth in the same period of the FY13.
LCs for rice and wheat worth $784.39 million were settled in the first seven months of the current fiscal year while the figure was $365.12 million during the same period of the FY13.
The import of rice rose gradually in the recent months due mainly to lower prices of the essential commodity on the international market, a BB official said.
He said the price of rice increased on the local market in the last few months which encouraged the businessmen to import the commodity more.
Besides, the production of rice in the country declined during the last fiscal year that pushed up the import of the staple food after the country had enjoyed available food grains in the previous few years, he said.
The BB data showed that the import of capital machinery increased by 18.25 per cent in July-January of the FY14 compared with that of a 21.59- per cent negative growth in the same period of the FY13.
LCs for capital machinery worth $1.38 billion were settled in the first seven months of the FY14 while the figure was $1.17 billion during the same period of the FY13.
The BB official said the import of huge amount of capital machinery in recent months had already raised suspicion that money laundering might have occurred in the process.
The import of capital machinery had declined sharply in the FY13 but it increased in recent months of this fiscal year despite having unfriendly business environment in the country amid political unrest, he said.
Against the backdrop, the Anti-Corruption Commission is now conducting an enquiry to detect the real cause of increasing trend in import of the capital machinery.
As part of the move, the BB has already provided the import data of some banks to the ACC, the BB official said.
The import of industrial raw materials increased by 11.87 per cent in the first seven months of the FY14 compared with that of a negative growth of 6.26 per cent in the same period of the FY13.
LCs for the industrial raw materials worth $8.50 billion were settled in the first seven months of the FY14 while the figure was $7.59 billion in the same period of the FY13.
The BB data, however, showed that the import of petroleum products registered a negative growth of 6.51 per cent in the first seven months of the FY14 compared with that of a negative growth of 3.33 per cent in the corresponding period of the FY13.
LCs for the petroleum products worth $2.42 billion were settled in the first seven months of this fiscal year while the figure was $2.59 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.
-With New Age input
