Led by Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed, the Bangladesh delegation held a series of meetings with IMF representatives in Washington.
The International Monetary Fund has no major disagreement with Bangladesh over reforms to the National Board of Revenue, one of the conditions set by the lender for the fourth and fifth instalments of the $4.7 billion loan.
IMF left Bangladesh without any decision on the release of next tranches of a loan.
The global lender said such an agreement would pave the way for completing the combined third and fourth reviews
The visiting mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is prioritising four conditions for releasing two instalments of an ongoing $4.7 billion loan programme, according to Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed.
“If the IMF does not release the funds, we will have to boost revenue,” he added
The International Monetary Fund has deferred the release of the fourth tranche of the $4.7 billion loan to June instead of March as Bangladesh could not meet some prior conditions.
Two years after Bangladesh turned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $4.7 billion bailout to address its worsening macroeconomic pressures, the nation stands at a crossroads.
The International Monetary Fund will give Bangladesh $645 million in the fourth tranche under the $4.7 billion loan programme, taking the total disbursement to $2.31 billion.
All our institutions are crumbling because of politicisation, inefficiencies, and corruption.
The International Monitory Fund has outlined wider reform measures, including bringing discipline to the financial sector and boosting revenue collection, for Bangladesh to avail the $4.5 billion loan.
The economy needs firm handling to ensure the situation doesn't turn into a crisis.
If things are bad, there must be a good reason for it.
Record price hikes mark an anti-people policy shift
The rise in fuel prices is an illogical decision that will only harm ordinary citizens and fail to deal with the root causes of the crisis that Bangladesh is currently facing.
Fighting tax evasion, preventing trade-based illicit financial outflows and ending the culture of money laundering and loan defaults is a much more sustainable solution to adding to foreign exchange reserves than taking foreign loans on interest.
Bangladesh has to prioritise its own interest while taking loan from the development partners, said Mushtaq Khan, professor of Economics at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
The International Monetary Fund is expecting a formal request for a loan from Bangladesh soon to provide a buffer to the delicate foreign currency reserves amid global economic volatility even though the government remains in two minds about it.
