What Salman Rahman says about export data mismatch

The PM’s adviser discusses the issue amid intense criticisms over a gap between information from different authorities

The Export Promotion Bureau’s data is “correct”, except for “one mistake”, Salman F Rahman believes, as recent acknowledgment of a gap between information from different authorities has triggered intense criticisms.

The prime minister’s adviser on private industry and investment discussed the issue at a seminar organised by the International Chamber of Commerce at a Dhaka hotel on Sunday.

“We export in two ways. The first is bank to bank LC. We import fabric and yarn, and then export [garment]. Here, a total value is considered as export.

“The other is – the buyers send the fabric and yarn for free. When the export is done, the buyers pay us only for CMT [cutting, making, and trimming]. But the EPB showed the entire export value. I don’t think the EPB had made a mistake,” Salman explained.

The gap between the value of the products shipped by exporters and the money received by the country has been increasing for quite some time.

The EPB showed $47.74 billion exports in the first 10 months of the recently ended 2023-24 fiscal year.

But Bangladesh Bank’s calculation showed $33 .67 billion export earnings in this period, or $14 billion less than what the EPB showed.

After recent adjustments, the EPB clarified that it only provided data from the National Board of Revenue.

Salman stressed the need for coordination among the agencies.

“The EPB’s mistake was to count the export data from the EPZs and then adding the same exports from the garment sector. The same exports are counted two times in this way. They have fixed the issue. I hope there won’t be any problems over the issue in future,” he explained further.