AHM Finance Minister Mustafa Kamal said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would decide whether the moratorium on loan repayments from clothing exports would be extended.
He made the statement while commenting on a plea by two associations of clothing exporters to extend the existing moratorium on loan repayment by six months.
Mustafa was speaking to reporters after a cabinet committee meeting on government procurement.
In a joint letter dated June 20, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association called on the finance ministry to extend the moratorium.
Mustafa said he had not yet made the call.
He added, however, that the prime minister would make the final decision on their plea.
Export-oriented clothing exporters took advantage of TK 10,050 crore from the incentive program the government introduced to combat the economic fallout from the Covid outbreak.
Repayment of the loans at 2% service charge was due to start in April but the deadline was extended by three months following advocacy by BGMEA and BKMEA.
Responding to another question, Mustafa said people would have to wait a few more days to find out if the current scopes of legalizing undisclosed income would continue in the new fiscal year.
The matter will be settled with the approval of the budget in parliament on June 30.
When asked to comment on the import of vaccines from India, Mustafa said the Department of Health should better understand their plans to resume importing doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India. in accordance with the ministry’s agreement with the company.
The serum had only sent 70 lakh doses out of 3 crore doses before the Indian government banned the export of the vaccine indefinitely.
On May 5, Mustafa said the country must recover the money it paid to the Serum Institute of India if the company ultimately fails to deliver the Covid vaccine.
The government has prepaid Tk 1,455.08 crore to Serum to purchase 3 crore doses by June.
The cabinet committee on procurement at its meeting on Wednesday approved a proposal from the Food Directorate to import 50,000 tonnes of rice from India’s M / S Bagadiya Brothers Private Ltd, each kilogram costing 34 Tk.
