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Despite being the largest foreign currency earner, the garment sector has yet to receive Tk 61,191 crore for exports made in the first three months of 2024, out of a total of Tk 161,577 crore. This shortfall comes at a time when the country's reserves are at an alarming level. According to Bangladesh Bank, only Tk 100,386 crore has been received against garment exports during this period.
Exporters have repeatedly complained that the export data released monthly by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) does not reflect the actual figures. They claim their exports are lower than what the data suggests. BGMEA President S M Mannan Kochi told The Daily Messenger, "The export data EPB releases every month doesn’t match with the actual export. In fact, work orders have decreased due to the Russia-Ukraine war."
However, experts believe that the EPB's data is accurate and suggest that exporters may be manipulating Letters of Credit (LCs) to launder money. Kumkum Sultana, Director (Textile) at EPB, told The Daily Messenger, "There is no interest for EPB in publishing fake data showing higher exports. In fact, we analyse the data issued by the Customs office against the 'bill of export.' So, there is no chance to show higher data than the actual figures."
BGMEA data shows in January, export was recorded Tk 58,149 crore, while in February Tk 52,533 crore and in March it was Tk 50,778 crore.
On average, monthly receipt against the garment export should be Tk 53,895 crore but the BB’s data shows only Tk 33,462 crore which is Tk 20,397 crore lower than estimation.
According to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh exported $40.49 billion worth of garment products during the ten months of the 2023-24 fiscal year. However, despite this, the reserve of the central bank has decreased to $19.97 billion as of April. Additionally, in the last fiscal year, the export figure stood at $46.99 billion.
BB data shows, the gross reserve of January $25.11 billion, February $25.96 billion, march $25.23 billion, April $25.36 billion but according to IMF calculation reserve of the country stood in January $19.96 billion, February $20.78 billion, March $19.91 billion April $19.49 billion.
At the same period of last fiscal year reserve was aggregated $32.22 billion in January, $32.26 billion in February, $31.14 billion in March and $30.96 billion in April.
Moreover, due to the prolonged heatwave, productivity has declined due to the increased absence of workers in factories, especially those that don’t have chiller facilities, as highlighted by Fazle Ehsan Shamim, vice president of BKMEA. Shamim predicted that exports in May will also be lower as a result.
Surprisingly, woven item exports did not experience growth during the first ten months of the 2024 fiscal year. Woven item exports recorded $17.61 billion, a marginal increase from $17.60 billion in the 2023 fiscal year. On the other hand, knit exports saw a significant rise, reaching $22.87 billion compared to $20.96 billion during the same period last year.
Messenger/Fameema
