Bangladesh received on Thursday the first tranche, amounting to US$476.17 million, of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-approved $4.7-billion loan.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) officials confirmed having received the fund, which contributed to some extent to the country's foreign-exchange reserves that have been under pressure for the last few months.
"We received $476.17 million, the first tranche of the IMF loan, on Thursday," said BB spokesperson Md. Mezbaul Hoque.
The foreign-exchange reserves increased to $32.69 billion on Thursday after getting the fund, he added.
The IMF is lending Bangladesh $4.7 billion under a package programme. An announcement from the IMF headquarters on Tuesday said its executive board gave the go-ahead to the loan proposal.
The government sought the IMF's funding support amid sharp widening of Bangladesh's current account deficit, depreciation of the taka against the US dollar, and decline in foreign exchange reserve.
Of the total sum, $3.3 billion will be given under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangements. Besides, $1.4 billion will come from the newly created Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
Bangladesh happens to be the first Asian country to receive loans from the RSF.
Meanwhile, the IMF on Thursday released the list of reforms that Bangladesh would have to carry out between FY23 and FY26 under ECF/ EFF and RSF, the heads under which the latter will be receiving loans in several tranches. 
The reforms include adoption of tax revenue measures yielding an additional 0.5 per cent of the GDP in the budget for FY24, inclusion of banks' rescheduled loans alongside with the non-performing loans in the annual financial stability report, submission of the Bank Companies Amendment Act and the Financial Companies Act by September, 2023, adoption of an interest rate corridor system by July, 2023, adoption of market-determined exchange rate for all official forex transactions by 2023, establishment of compliance risk management units in the NBR customs and VAT units in 2024, adoption of periodic formula-based price adjustment mechanism for petroleum products, development of a plan for the banking sector to adopt the IFRS9 by 2027, development of a plan for reduction in national savings certificate issuance, publication of GDP estimates on quarterly basis, development of a tax compliance report, adoption of medium-term revenue strategy, publication of banks' distressed assets in line with the BASE:-III standards, submission of the amended Bankruptcy (amendment) Act in parliament and publication of SOE sector report covering 50 largest SOEs.
The IMF will make six reviews of the dos list, one each in FY 2023 and FY2026 and two each in FY24 and FY25.
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