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The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has sought a sum of Tk 25.60 billion from the government to meet the demand for cash incentive/subsidy made by local exporters, officials have said.
The central bank recently sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), seeking the release of the third tranche of cash incentive/subsidy, they added.
A high official of MoF said: "We have received a request from the central bank to release the third tranche of cash incentive/subsidy. We are now working on the matter. But it is not possible to say right now how much money will be released as cash incentive/subsidy," he said.
"Some Tk 25.60 billion is needed immediately to meet outstanding cash incentive/subsidy. Of the amount, some Tk 1.30 billion will be needed for the jute sector while Tk 24.30 billion for other sectors," a central banker said.
The MoF has already released the second tranche of Tk 11.25 billion as cash incentive/subsidy in favour of the BB in the current financial year. Of the amount, some Tk 1.25 billion was given to the exporters from jute sector while Tk 10 billion for the exporters belonging to other sectors, BB data showed.
The funds released by the government were provided to the banks as their outstanding cash incentive/subsidy.
Banks' unpaid cash incentives stood at over Tk 14.89 billion until December, 2017. Of the amount, jute sector will get over Tk 125 million while other sectors over Tk 14.77 billion, according to the data.
At present, a total of 27 export sectors are receiving cash incentives for the current fiscal. The government has set a target to release a total of Tk 45 billion in cash incentives for the fiscal year 2017-18.
The exporters will receive cash subsidy on the products against net repatriation of the FOB (free-on-board) prices during the period between July 01, 2015 and June 30, 2016, according to the announcement made by the central bank.