Amid the present situation of dollar crisis, economists of the country suggested to impose ban on importing luxurious and unnecessary items.
They said even though some steps have been taken to control import, there’s no estimation about how much money is being saved in this process. Hence, they urged for imposing ban on luxurious and unnecessary products until the current crisis is over.
Regarding this matter, renowned economist and former chairman of Janata Bank, Dr Jamaluddin Ahmed told The Bangladesh Pratidin, “In this crisis moment, it would be better to import fewer items. As the crisis is not permanent, it won’t make problems if luxurious products are not imported and consumed. It could be imported again when the situation improves.”
He said if the banks open LCs in the purpose other than importing necessary and emergency products, then legal action should be taken against them. We’ve to remain concerned for the sake of our economy.
The Prime Minister on November 6 in a meeting discussed with the secretaries of concerned directorate and ministries about the whole economic situation and other related matters. In the meeting, it was discouraged to import luxurious goods with a view to keep up the dollar reserve. It also gave importance to the proposal of commerce ministry of not importing 340 products.
The dollar crisis was started from the middle of this year. At present, the reserve of foreign currency has gone below 34 billion dollars. The remittance and export weren’t increased keeping pace with the increasing import. So, the amount of dollar spending in import is much more than the remittance flow coming into the country. In this circumstance, most of the banks aren’t interested to open LC for importing foods.
Renowned banker Mohammad Nurul Amin told the Bangladesh Pratidin, “Amid the current dollar crisis, import of all the luxurious products should be stopped temporarily except the emergency food-products as for the human-living foods are much more necessary than luxurious products.”
According to the information of Bangladesh Bank, the trade deficit in September was $ 300 crore, in August $ 247 crore and in July $ 208 crore, which shows the ever-rising amount of deficit. In July-September of last fiscal year, the quantity of import was 677 crore greater than the export.
Recently, in a programme, distinguished fellow of research organization Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said, “In the present context, the matter of adjusting import duty is very important. However, there’s no record about how much amount had been saved.”
He said other countries have already taken steps to impose ban on importing many products. So, the matter of adjusting duty in import should be conducted strictly. Six digit code of HS should be considered while doing this adjustment. In addition, initiatives should be taken to make the necessary food items available in reasonable price.
@The report was published in Bengali on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on December 11, 2022 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque
