Dhaka plans publicity to encourage liquidity injections into bonds

To contain the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bangladesh government is readying a full-fledged roadmap for encouraging liquidity inflows into at least five bonds.

The government wants to increase facilities for investing in these bonds -- three for expatriates and two for local entrepreneurs, report UNB.

According to sources in the Finance Ministry and the National Board of Revenue (NBR), apart from good profit, expatriate investors in these bonds will get Commercially Important Person (CIP) status after investing a certain amount of money.

To make the investment norms more simplified, the bonds would be transformed from the US dollar to multi currency. This would enable expatriates living in various countries other than the US to invest in bonds. They would not need to convert their currencies to the US dollar.

Currently, Wage Earners' Development Bond, US Dollar Premium Bond and US Dollar Investment Bond are there to encourage foreign currency collection from the expatriate Bangladeshis. All have been introduced by the National Savings Department.

On the other hand, local investors can invest in Treasury Bill and Treasury Bond.

After the pandemic, the sources said, the government will give huge publicity and organise roadshows to attract investors from home and abroad as the success rate till now is not satisfactory at all.

Recently, the Treasury and Loan Management wing of the Finance Division held a meeting in this regard with Finance Secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder in the chair. Representatives from Bangladesh Bank, the National Savings Department and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) were present.

At the meeting, the Finance Secretary said that there's an urgent need to take initiatives to improve investment of Bangladeshi expatriates in Wage Earners' Development Bond, US Dollar Premium Bond and US Dollar Investment Bond.

He also put emphasis on creating a separate module on Cash Management and Cash Forecasting from the Treasury and Loan Management wing of the Finance Division for possible allocation from the government.

The meeting was informed that everyday the expatriates are sending money in the country while the amount increased significantly as the government is giving two percent incentive. If these expatriates can be encouraged to invest their money in the respective three bonds, then they might give a positive response.

The meeting also put emphasis on the formulation of a specific roadmap and implementation of the same in a way that the expatriates invest in these bonds with interest and patriotism.

According to the sources, if the expatriates who will invest in the specific three bonds for more than six months and do not take any profit, then after the completion of the tenure they will get a 12% interest.

There is no restriction about how much money an expatriate can invest in these three bonds. These bonds are available in foreign exchange houses, foreign branches of local banks and Bangladesh Bank branches. One can take a loan from any local bank against these bonds. If the investor wants, he or she can repatriate the money.

The government has taken initiative to give Commercially Important Person (CIP) status for the investors who would invest Tk 8 crore or more in Wage Earners' Development Bond. The tenure of this bond is five years, one can invest Tk 25,000 to Tk 50 lakh and can withdraw the profit after every six months.

The tenure of the US Dollar Premium Bond is three years, the investment scale in this bond is from USD 500 to 50,000. The profit is 7.5% after the completion of the tenure and one can take away profit in every six months.

US Dollar Investment Bond is also of three years tenure, its profit margin is 6.5%, while the highest investment limit in this bond is USD 50,000.

A senior official of NBR told UNB that the initiative of conducting roadshows and massive publicity to attract more investment from the expatriates "is a time-befitting step". "If the expatriates get more ideas regarding these bonds, it will help them a lot to come forward to investing in them," he said.