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IMF decides on $1b credit tomorrow

Rejaul Karim Byron
The proposal for $1 billion loans promised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Bangladesh will be placed at a board meeting of the donor agency tomorrow.
If the board gives a go-ahead to the proposal, the loans under Extended Credit Facility (ECF) will come in six instalments and $167 million will be available for the current fiscal year, said officials of the finance ministry.
The ECF has replaced the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) as the IMF's main tool for mediumterm financial support for low-income countries.
The ECF provides a higher level of access to financing, more concessional terms, enhanced flexibility in programme design, and more focused and streamlined conditionality.
The ECF currently carries a zero percent interest rate and the loans will have to be repaid within 10 years.
A finance ministry official said, if the loan is approved, Bangladesh will get IMF credit after nine years.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith has already informed the IMF of details on what steps the government will take under the programme in next three years.The finance ministry official said the reform programmes incorporated in the policy announcements made by the finance minister in the last three years has been included in the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, which has been sent to the IMF.
The government has made commitment to fulfil 11 conditions under the programme by December, including adoption of an automatic pricing formula for retail petroleum prices to ensure full pass-through of international prices.
The finance minister after a pre-budget discussion with the members of five parliamentary standing committees on Sunday told journalists that the government will introduce the automatic pricing formula to reduce fuel subsidy.
Muhith said the government will set a benchmark so that if fuel prices go up or down on the international market, the prices will be adjusted at the retail level according to the extent of the rise and fall.
The finance ministry official said price adjustment at the domestic retail level may begin if the international prices change 10 percent up or down.
The other conditions of the IMF to be fulfilled under the programme include demutualisation of Dhaka and Chittagong bourses by December.