Banks asked to increase forex inflow

Bangladesh Bank has asked managing directors of different banks to find out ways to raise foreign currency inflow to give a boost to the country depleting forex reserves.

They were also ordered to bring foreign currencies through banks' offshore banking units as the central bank has recently relaxed the rules for such units.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder made the call in a meeting with the managing directors of five leading private commercial banks— Brac, City, Eastern, Mutual Trust and Dutch-Bangla—at the BB headquarters in Dhaka today.

Bangladesh has huge payments to make in the days to come, but its forex reserves continue to fall, as it stood at $19.97 billion as on April 24, down from $23.3 billion in July 26 of last year, BB data showed.

Meanwhile, the Offshore Banking Act 2024 passed in parliament on March 5 has barred the government to charge any tax on the profits that foreigners make in the offshore banking units of Bangladeshi banks.