A total of 1,042 readymade garment factories, which gave discounts up to 10 per cent on export value for buyers amid the COVID-19 outbreak, would have to get approval by March 31 from the Bangladesh Bank’s discount committee for non-repatriation of the proceeds. Sector people said that the total amount of such discounts given from December 12, 2019 to February 28, 2021 would be around $0.5 million. Exporters have to show cause of non-repatriation of export proceeds after 120 days of shipment of products. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association has asked its members to submit information on their unrealised export proceeds to the BB’s discount committee through their respective lien banks by March 30. The trade body on March 16 issued a circular in this regard following a meeting with the BB to resolve the cases of non-repatriated export proceeds. The BGMEA said that the pandemic hampered the business of global apparel buyers and in many cases the export value was not repatriated fully. Exporters said that they had frequently faced discounts and cancelations of part of orders from the buyers due to the COVID-19. Amid the pandemic, the BB has decided that the cases of unrealised export proceeds would be settled through the online system of the central bank till March 31 without approval from the discount committee and the cases of discounts above 10 per cent would go to the committee for its approval, they said. ‘There are 1,042 cases of discount up to 10 per cent and the exporters would not be allowed to run their business after March 31 as the BB system would show their export proceeds unrealised due to lack of approval from the discount committee,’ Mohammad Hatem, senior vice-president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told New Age on Saturday. He said that RMG exporters on March 15 held a meeting with the BB’s discount committee and requested it to approve the cases in time. ‘The Bangladesh Bank has decided to approve the cases and we have requested our members to submit information on discounts by March 31 to continue their business,’ Hatem said. He said that the BB agreed to approve the cases having valid ground for non-repatriation and if the BB system marks any exporter as red for non-repatriation of proceeds, banks would not finance him/her and he/she would not able to open letters of credit. Hatem also said that once all the information from exporters and lien banks were received, the issue might be settled in the next meeting of the BB’s discount committee to be held on April 6.
