The International Monetary Fund wants to disburse the fourth tranche of its Extended Credit Facility (ECF) in December despite repeated requests from the finance division to disburse the amount ahead of the general elections.
The government had been asking IMF that the fourth instalment of the fund be released in November.
“The tentative date of disbursement of the ECF tranche is on December 6,” Finance Minister AMA Muhith told the Dhaka Tribune on Monday after a meeting with IMF Managing director Christine Lagarde at her office at the IMF headquarters in Washington.
“IMF did not impose any conditions on the use of ECF, which is meant to be used for the country’s import payments,” he added.
Earlier this month, a visiting IMF team asked the government to describe its plans to spend the fourth tranche of ECF.
A senior finance division official disclosed to the Dhaka Tribune that IMF wanted to make sure the fund would not be used for projects meant “just to woo the public before the elections.”
“We will have the total ECF amount for 18 months without any hitching by the IMF, and because of this huge reserve, Bangladesh government will be able to buy oil from its own funds instead of getting loans from home and aboard,” Muhith said.
The minister also said the government was now in a financially sound position near end of its tenure as unpaid bills in and outside the budget had already been paid.
He also said IMF would publish a report on the ECF performances of different countries in December where Bangladesh would do well.
Muhith also said Christine Lagarde had praised the achievements of Bangladesh in social sector development and remarked that Bangladesh’s achievement was higher than India in the sector.
The minister also said in the meeting the IMF chief had expressed her condolences on the recent garment sector tragedies.
The finance minister also said: “I suggested to Lagarde that in future, in the interest of global trade, finance and development public sectors should be monitored by international organisations instead of credit rating agencies like Standards and Poor’s and Moody’s, which will be good for the countries.”
“The financial stability boards of the global lenders will look after the matter.”
He said the trade and global financial market is looked after by the World Bank arm IFC, and the IMF should look after the trade financing of the world and sovereign funds available everywhere in the world in the future.
