Staff Correspondent

The Bangladeshi banks have decided not to pay more than Tk 123 to buy US dollar from remittance. The central bank has also directed the banks to this end.

The banks have made the decision as the dollar price rose to Tk 126-127.

The importers are being forced to buy dollars at an inflated price as the banks have been buying dollars at a higher rate. This has been contributing to the hike of prices of imported goods. Treasury heads of several private banks said this.

The dollar market was unstable for the last two years.

Following the fall of the Awami League government, the market became stable as the interim government took several measures related to the exchange rate.

The dollar market, however, has become volatile again for nearly one month as authorities have issued orders to pay all the import liabilities within December. This increased the demand for dollars.

Some banks even started buying the dollar at an exchange rate of Tk 126-127. As a result, the central bank has taken a tougher stance. Later, the banks decided not to pay more than Tk 123 for a dollar.

Following this decision, the banks bought the US dollars from remittance income at a rate of Tk 124.5 at best, resulting in the decline in prices of dollars again.

Recently, the central bank sought explanations from two state-owned and 11 private banks for buying dollars at an escalated price from foreign exchange houses. Then the banks brought down the dollar prices.

Due to the escalation of dollar prices, remittance income crossed the USD 2 billion mark within just 21 days.

Though the remittance income crossed USD 2 billion in all the months since the interim government has taken charge, this was the fewest days to cross the mark.

Amid this high inflow of remittance income, the central bank has been buying dollars from the commercial banks, which is increasing the forex reserve.

The reserve stood at USD 24.98 billion on Monday. On the other hand, the volume of reserve was USD 20.16 billion as per the BPM 6 method of calculation, suggested by the IMF.