New Delhi: The remaining International Monetary Fund (IMF) funds for Bangladesh remain stalled as the lender presses Dhaka to complete a series of pending reforms in financial‑sector and climate‑resilience, a new report has said.
The report from Bangladesh-based publication The Asian Age said the IMF has set nearly a dozen conditions for reactivating the suspended programme, including banking‑sector and legal reforms, capacity building of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), single-click access to taxpayer information among others.
The global lender also sought removal of fuel and electricity subsidies, a market‑based foreign‑exchange rate and reforms to boost climate resilience.
The government is seeking an additional $2 billion in budget support alongside the remaining tranches of a $4.7 billion IMF programme, the report said.
The IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department delegation recently visited Dhaka to review progress in key sectors and assess tax policies, to determine the loan program’s future.
“The incomplete reform activities under the previous loan program with the IMF got priority under the new program. As a result, this visit was not limited solely to assessing climate policies, but also played a crucial role in setting the future direction of economic reforms,” the report said.
The IMF’s Technical Assistance (TA) mission delegation in July conducted an evaluation of Bangladesh’s policies, financial structures, and institutional capabilities in tackling climate change. The findings of this evaluation will also carry significant weight in discussions regarding a potential new loan program.
Notably, the country’s recently released ‘Public Financial Management Reform Strategy 2025-2030’ featured climate-smart public financial management and gender-responsive budgeting for the first time.
Further, nearly Tk 42,206.89 crore has been allocated across 25 ministries for climate-related expenditures in the FY26 budget, accounting for 10.09 percent of the total allocation.
“We hope that the IMF will consider different difficulties of Bangladesh to meet cent percent of the loan conditions. Despite some challenges, we are expecting the loans will be released in favour of Bangladesh,” the report cited Finance Secretary Dr. Md. Khairuzzaman Mozumder as saying.
(IANS)
