BB asks banks for faster payment

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has instructed the banks concerned to expedite the payment of dues to foreign airliners, BB spokesperson Md Abul Bashar said on Tuesday.
In an emergency press briefing at the BB headquarters, the central banker hoped the issue of payments to the aviation companies would be dealt with from today (Wednesday).
The BB's intervention comes following media reports that Bangladesh has failed to pay least $214 million for both cargo and passengers to the airlines concerned due to dollar crisis.
Disagreeing with the reported withholding fund, Mr Bashar said they have collected details from the banks and learned that the actual volume of dues was $177.79 million, not $214 million.
"Seven domestic and international banks owe money to foreign airlines. We checked that the banks have enough capacity to pay in dollars. We instructed them to take immediate measures to this effect."
"Maybe, the volume of dues will decline within few days," added Mr Bashar, also a BB executive director.
Sharing recent statistics of payment to both cargo and passenger carriers, he said a total of $402.18 million has so far been paid in the aviation sector this year.
Citing a circular of the Foreign Exchange Operation Department, Mr Bashar said the government was considering selling fuel oil to the airlines in local currency to reduce pressure on the forex market.
"The airlines have the opportunity to pay oil prices in our currency," he added.
Currently, most airlines buy fuel oil in dollars from Bangladeshi oil companies.
Very recently, the International Air Transport Association, the trade body of some 300 airlines that controls around 83 per cent of total air traffic, said Bangladesh was the worst next to Nigeria in terms of blocking funds of carriers.

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