FROM PAGE B1

The IPPs will first take loans in the form of the local currency, after which they will convert those to dollars to import fuel oil from abroad, he said.

For this reason, the central bank relaxed the single borrower exposure limit to facilitate the IPPs.

Among the IPPs, Orion Power will require $197.10 million, Summit Power $159.86 million, Doreen Power $102.80 million, Confidence Power $97.50 million, Acorn Power $73.59 million and Baraka Power $68.32 million.

The letter also mentioned the names of some other IPPs that would require a hefty amount of dollars in the four months to June this year.

Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, said the country’s financial sector was now facing a dollar shortage.

The demand for US dollars placed by the IPPs has indicated that the stress will continue to prevail in the coming days, he said.

Global rating agency Moody’s downgraded its outlook of Bangladesh’s banking system from stable to negative on March 1, which may exacerbate the ongoing problem, he said.

Banks in Bangladesh may face difficulties in mobilising foreign loans in the form of supplier’s and buyer’s credit from abroad due to the downgrading of the rating for the banking sector, Mansur said.