The country’s overall import payment in the financial year 2014-15 increased by 3 per cent but the payment for capital machinery imports soared by around 23 per cent amid suspicion of money laundering. According to the provisional data of the Bangladesh Bank released on Thursday, the total letters of credit settlement for imports in FY2014-15 was $38.45 billion against $37.19 billion in the previous FY14. Bangladesh Bank officials said that in the final count, the total import payment might increase to $40 billion considering the freight on board product prices. The BB data showed that despite lower growth in overall import payment, the LC settlement for capital machinery imports increased by 22.97 per cent to $3.09 billion in FY15 from that of $2.52 billion in FY14. The yea-on-year growth in import payment for capital machinery in FY14 was 18.95 per cent. The LC settlement for industrial raw material imports, however, increased by only 3.10 per cent to $15.18 billion in FY15 from that of $14.72 billion in the previous FY. Suspicion of money laundering through the import of capital machinery continued to grow because of dull business situation in the country. ‘This number of capital machinery import growth is very suspicious. I don’t see any reason for such increase when the import growth of raw material is lower,’ former adviser to the interim government Mirza Azizul Islam told New Age when asked about the issue. He said the overall business situation was dull and sudden rise in capital machinery import payment was not a good sign. ‘There is a chance that some businessmen are over invoicing and sending money abroad. The government should run an investigation to find out the fact,’ he said. A BB official said that the central bank had recently tightened the rules for import of capital machinery in a bid to tackle money laundering. The BB issued a circular on July 9 saying that the clients would have to attach all HS codes of the capital machinery with their IMP forms from October 1, 2015. BB data also showed that the settlement of LCs for rice and wheat imports rose by 6.25 per cent to $1.49 billion in FY15 compared to that of $1.4 billion in the previous fiscal year. Import payment for petroleum products declined by 24.36 per cent to $3.46 billion from that of $4.57 billion because of decline in fuel oil prices on international market. BB data showed that opening of LCs for imports rose by 2.99 per cent to $43 billion in FY15 from $41.81 billion in FY14.
