Lack of coordination behind errors in export data: Salman F Rahman

There was a lack of coordination among the Export Processing Bureau (EPB), the National Board of Revenue (NBR), and the Bangladesh Bank, which caused errors in the country's export data, Salman F Rahman, private industry and investment adviser to the prime minister, said today.

He made the remark while speaking as the chief guest during a roundtable discussion on "Digitalising International Trade in Bangladesh" organised by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) at Hotel Sheraton.

He said, "We export in two ways. One is through back-to-back letters of credit (LCs), where we import fabric and yarn by paying for them and then export the finished products. The entire value is considered as export. 

"The other way is when buyers send us fabric and yarn for free, and we only receive payment for the cost and making (CMT) charges. Here, the EPB reports the full export value, and I believe they are not wrong to do so."

The critical aspect is the export value itself – whether one acquired the yarn and fabric for free or bought them is not the primary concern, he further said.

"However, the issue arises when the EPB reports the full value, but I only receive the CMT payment, creating discrepancies with the Bangladesh Bank. They need to reconcile these differences," he added.

Pointing out the error made by the EPB, Salman said, "The EPB counted exports from EPZ once and then counted them again when exported from the factory, resulting in double counting. This issue has now been corrected, and I hope there won't be any problems in the future."

AK Azad, vice president of the ICC and managing director of Ha-meem Group, said, "There is always a discrepancy between our calculations and EPB's. But their calculations should be accurate, which can be obtained if they publish information in coordination with Customs and Bangladesh Bank."

The issue of data discrepancies came to light after it was reported that our export data contained a $10 billion overstatement. The mystery was resolved on 2 July when the NBR corrected its inflated export estimates, a problem that had persisted for several years. 

For the past few years, exporters have been complaining that the monthly export numbers released by the EPB were unrealistic.

The roundtable, presided over by Mahbubur Rahman, president of ICC Bangladesh, also included a keynote presentation by Pamela Mar, managing director of the Digital Standard Initiative (DSI) at ICC. 

Other attendees at the roundtable included Muhammad A (Rumee) Ali, chairman of ICC Bangladesh Banking Commission; Iftekhar Alam, regional head for South and South East Asia at the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), Islamic Development Bank; Rupa Chanda, director of Trade, Investment, and Innovation Division at UNESCAP; and Edimon Ginting, country director for Bangladesh Resident Mission at the Asian Development Bank, among others.