Photo : Collected
For a considerable period, traders have voiced concerns over significant discrepancies in export earnings reported by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB). Media reports have highlighted these irregularities, and even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised questions.
Subsequently, Bangladesh Bank, the National Board of Revenue (NBR), and EPB convened several meetings to address these concerns. Following these discussions, it was revealed by the central bank that the actual income from product exports reported by EPB over the last 10 months of the financial year is approximately $14 billion, less than the initially published data.
According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), exports of goods during the July-April period of the outgoing financial year amounted to $47,471 million. In contrast, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) reported that goods worth $33,671 million were exported. The discrepancy led the central bank to reconcile with the NBR's figures, resulting in a downward revision of exports by $13,800 million. This adjustment has shifted the financial account from deficit to surplus. However, the current account has subsequently fallen back into deficit.
Kumkum Sultana, Director (textile) EPB told the Daily Messenger “There no interest of EPB publishing the fake data showing higher export. In fact, we are analysing the data issued by Custom office against ‘bill of export’. So, there is no chance to show higher data than actual.”
MA Razzak, research director of Policy Research Institute (PRI) said, "If you say $10 billion to $14 billion dollar export income has decreased, then a part of this export income will have a small impact on our national income, that is, the country's GDP." So, if the quality of the export information is not good or if there are large-scale errors, it will not help us to make the right decision in the future.”
Sources said that EPB publishes the statistics based on the information of the Customs House. There have been instances of the same export being shown multiple times (double or triple counting) in the Customs House data for procedural reasons. Again, after the shipment was rejected by the customs house for quality or other reasons, the export counts twice. Due to these reasons, the EPB data showed an excess of exports.
Meanwhile, this data of export income will affect the country's growth as well. So, new pressure will be created in the economy. To improve the situation, economists suggest reconsidering the incentives of the export sector.
EPB basically calculates the export income by calculating the export bill of customs. But if the export is canceled for any reason, it is no longer excluded from the calculation. EPB also considers products sent as gifts or samples as exports. Due to these reasons, the export appears to be much higher than the actual figure.
According to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) during the ten months of the 2023-24 fiscal year Bangladesh exported $40.49 billion worth garments products but the reserve of the central bank down to $19.97 billion as of April. And in last fiscal year export was $46.99 billion.
Messenger/Fameema
