BB governor directs govt banks to open LCs to import Ramadan products

Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder directed four state-owned banks in the country to open letters of credit (LCs) for importing goods during Ramadan.

The governor gave the directive in a meeting with the managing directors of state-owned banks at the central bank on Tuesday.

Kazi Sayedur Rahman, deputy governor of the Bangladesh Bank, Md Afzal Karim, CEO and managing director of Sonali Bank, Md Abdus Salam Azad, managing director and CEO of Janata Bank, Md Murshedul Kabir, managing director and CEO of Agrani Bank and Mohammad Jahangir, managing director and CEO of Rupali Bank participated at the meeting.

According to sources, the central bank governor praised the state-owned banks for opening government LCs during the crisis period.

He also directed these four banks to spend a part of the dollars of the remittances and export proceeds on the import of products such as chickpeas, pulses, sugar, onion, edible oil and dates.

Md Abdus Salam Azad, managing director and CEO of Janata Bank, told The Business Standard, "The governor mentioned at the meeting that the overall condition of the state-owned banks is positive. Every aspect of foreign trade including remittances and export income is coming to a sustainable level."

"The flow of remittances to our banks is also satisfactory. Remittances worth more than $13 million came in the first week of January. We are getting dollar support for government LC settlements from the reserves. We are trying to manage dollars from our resources," he added.

Md Abdus Salam Azad further said, "The government banks are ready to open LCs for the Ramadan essentials. We have already started to open some LCs. Besides, we are also opening private LCs."

He expressed hope that the country will overcome the current dollar crisis in February this year.