Loans, deposits rise in Islamic banks despite severe liquidity crisis

Outstanding loans and deposits both increased in full-fledged 10 local Islamic banks in February this year although six of them have been facing severe liquidity crisis for more than a year. Outstanding loans at the 10 banks stood at Tk 455,525 crore, up by Tk 6,452 crore from a month earlier. At the same time, deposits in those banks hit Tk 380,066 crore, up by Tk 4,762 crore from January. Massive loan irregularities have been taking a huge toll on six Islamic banks: Islami Bank Bangladesh, Social Islami Bank, First Security Islami Bank, Union Bank, Global Islami Bank and ICB Islamic Bank. The rest four—Al Arafah Islami Bank, Standard Bank, Exim Bank and Shahjalal Islami Bank—have been doing comparatively well.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/loans-deposits-rise-islamic-banks-despite-severe-liquidity-crisis-3622211

Bangladesh may receive $1.15 billion in the third installment of the IMF loan

Bangladesh may receive $1.15 billion in the third instalment of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) loan in the last week of June, which will give a much-needed relief to the country’s dwindling foreign exchange reserves. The proposal for the third tranche will be placed at the executive board meeting of the Washington-based lender for approval on June 24 or June 25. In January last year, the IMF approved the $4.7 billion loan. Bangladesh has received more than $1 billion in two instalments. In December, the central bank was supposed to maintain net international reserves of $17.78 billion. It fell short by more than a billion dollars. This prompted the IMF mission to lower the target. The reserves have fallen to $18.4 billion recently from $41 billion accumulated in August 2021, according to the IMF’s balance of payments and investment position manual.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/imfs-115b-3rd-tranche-likely-late-june-3622261

Relief for consumers as Government may halve source tax on 28 essentials

In a belated yet welcome move, the government is set to halve the source tax to 1% on the supply of 28 essential commodities and food grains, a measure that aims to provide some relief to consumers grappling with persistently high inflation. They mentioned that supply of rice, wheat, potato, onion, garlic, peas, chickpeas, lentils, ginger, turmeric, dry chilli, pulses, maize, flour, whole flour, salt, edible oil, sugar, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, dates, bay leaves, jute, cotton, yarn and all types of fruits will be subject to deduct a 1% tax at source instead of the current 2%. On the other hand, the government is also planning to reduce the total tax incidence to 58.60% from 89.32% on the import of packaged powdered milk weighing up to 2.5kg. Currently, the total tax incidence for bulk quantity importers of powdered milk is 37%.

Source: https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/relief-consumers-govt-may-halve-source-tax-28-essentials-862906