Dollar crisis affecting payments for essential imports: NBR chairman

National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan on Sunday admitted that Bangladesh is facing severe crisis while paying import bills for various essential items including fuel.

“What the representative from Bangladesh Bank said, essential items like fossil fuel or gas whatever you say which is a must for running industries and transportation (sector), without these Bangladesh will not move forward. We are not properly paying these bills due to dollar crisis,” he said.

He also mentioned that due to the dollar crisis the payment of bill of these imports are facing severe problems.

The NBR chairman said this while holding a meeting with the stakeholders of gold importers to encourage this commercially in the country.

The Leaders of Bangladesh Jewellery Association urged the NBR to reconsider the import duty and other levies that caused 151 percent import duty for diamonds.

In reply, the NBR chief mentioned that there are reasons behind this 151 percent duties and taxes.

“For those purposes, the government is discouraging diamond import, maybe while the foreign exchange reserve will be better and comfortable, then everything will be opened,” he added.

He pointed to the anarchic situation in the banking sector during the past Awami League regime.

“That is the big reason,” he said.

He gave assurances to reconsider the matter in the future when the foreign currency reserves will be in a more comfortable position.

Bangladesh is currently grappling with a severe dollar crisis that has significantly impacted its import payments and overall economic stability.

Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves have once again dropped below $20 billion, driven by import bills and foreign debt repayments.

The foreign exchange crisis in Bangladesh persists, leading to a decline in reserves to $19.93 billion as of January 22, according to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) BPM-6 standards. On the same day, total reserves stood at $25.22 billion, as reported by Bangladesh Bank.

On January 15, the reserves were $21.3 billion under BPM-6 standards, with total reserves at $25.18 billion.