Bangladesh's apex trade body Thursday urged the central bank to take stern action against those involved in dollar-price manipulation, as the local currency keeps losing its exchange value.
Leaders of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) made the call at a meeting with newly appointed governor of Bangladesh Bank Abdur Rouf Talukder at his office.
"We heard that many share traders are now involved in dollar trade. The government needs to control them badly," FBCCI president Jasim Uddin told newsmen after the meeting.
"No person is above the state. We have urged the governor to take the matter seriously," he said.
The FBCCI president said Bangladesh Bank and other banks know who are making the dollar-market volatile. "Identify them and take action. Taking step is very necessary, otherwise the situation may continue."
"Whoever involved in the financial-sector volatility needs to be taken into custody. Not only businessmen but also banks may be involved in this case," he said.
He said the central bank did not provide licence to banks to make Tk 10 profit from a dollar.
"Not only the banks, if money-exchange houses are found involved, action needs to be taken against them, too," he added.
The dollar price in the recent days spiked in Bangladesh, as elsewhere across the world, and on Thursday, banks sold each dollar at Tk 94.75 while on the kerb market the greenback traded at Tk 109.
The apex body leader's observations came in the wake of the prevailing pressure on the foreign-currency reserves due to increased import payments and lower remittance inflow coupled with less-than-expected level of export growth.
The volume of foreign-exchange reserves has fallen to as low as $39.50 billion from $48 billion months back.
Keeping the situation in view the government and central bank have already taken various austerity measures to contain the spending of foreign currency.
On the proposal of withdrawing cap on interest of bank loans which is 6.0 per cent and 9.0 per cent, Mr Jasim said if the cap is withdrawn, investment growth will fall.
He said any change in this case will result in private-sector investment fall contrary to the latest monetary policy. "We have urged the governor not to withdraw the cap."
Rather, he said, money supply in the market needs to be enhanced.
The FBCCI president said he requested the governor to extend the latest loan-rescheduling facility to small and medium enterprises alongside the big businesses.
The business delegation also requested the central bank to order the banks to provide a certain percentage of their loan portfolio for long-term loans which in the past the Bangladesh Shilpa Bank and Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Songstha had been providing.
However, the governor suggested them to collect such types of funds from bond market and for this reason caps on banks will be withdrawn for buying bonds.
syful-islam@outlook.com
