Sell excess dollars by Sept, BB tells NRBs

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) believes that a section of people living in the country now have a huge amount of cash dollars in their hands, accrued while they stayed abroad as non-resident Bangladeshis (NRB) or visited other countries for various purposes.

The central bank on Wednesday issued a letter requesting such people to sell their excess dollars within September.

A senior official of the BB told the FE that some people, who came home after staying abroad or returned home after foreign trips, had few millions of cash dollars in their hands.

The letter said punitive actions would be taken against those people, who hoarded US dollars illegally. The hoarders would have to sell the dollars to either banks or money changers by September 30.

It said an NRB is allowed to bring any amount of money when the person comes back to the country.

An NRB can keep a maximum of US$ 10,000 or equivalent amount of other foreign currencies with him or her while staying in the country. The amount can be brought back to other countries, when an NRB would go there.

But the NRBs have to sell the excess amount of $10,000 within a month after coming to Bangladesh. Legal actions would be taken against the NRBs, if they keep excess amount of foreign currency than the legal limit.

The BB official noted that the country's financial sector started to face shortage of cash dollar once again.

jasimharoon@yahoo.com