The central bank's continuous pressure on the commercial banks has contributed significantly to reducing the burden of overdue foreign and domestic payments against accepted bills.
The payment delays tarnish the image of the banking system and increase import costs, says a Bangladesh Bank (BB) circular issued on Sunday, asking the banks to clear the overdue accepted bills as soon as possible by following its instructions.
It advised the commercial banks to draw up a coordinated plan of action after analysing the nature of the overdue payments (overseas and local).
The banks also require initiating a special auditing system for the branches having more overdue payments after analysing their performance.
If there is any bill not eligible for payment due to any arbitration, it should be notified to the bank of the suppliers, said the circular.
Such instructions were issued to bring further acceleration in the payments of the overdue bills, it added.
BB spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan said they held a meeting in early February with the top executives of the banks having more overdue payments and asked the commercial lenders to take quick steps to clear such bills.
Following the meeting, he said, the central bank constantly followed up on the payment situation and yielded remarkable achievement.
Citing the BB data, Mr Khan, also an executive director of BB's concerned department, said the country's overdue foreign and domestic payments were equivalent to $200.34 million and $311.98 million respectively before holding the meeting.
"Now the figure dropped to $88.91 million and $153.17 million respectively," the central banker said.
As a matter of fact, he added, the corresponding relations with the country's banking sector keeps improving, which is a good sign for the economy.
By the end of November 2024, according to the BB sources, the outstanding volume of overdue payment was $445.36 million.
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