The Export Promotion Bureau is likely to revise its export figures downward by more than $10.8 billion for the financial year 2023-24 after the Bangladesh Bank identified discrepancies between the statistics reported by the EPB and the National Board of Revenue.
According to commerce ministry officials, the EPB has begun revising its data in coordination with the National Board of Revenue and the Bangladesh Bank.
After the revision, Bangladesh鈥檚 export earnings for the financial year 2023-24 might be $44.5 billion.
Before identifying the discrepancies, the EPB had prepared an export earnings figure of $55.28 billion for FY24, although the data were not published, government officials said.
They also mentioned that, based on the revised data, the country鈥檚 export earnings for FY23, as published by the EPB, would decrease by $9 billion from the previously reported $55.56 billion.
EPB vice-chairman Md Anwar Hossain declined to elaborate the issue, saying that all the three organisations 鈥� EPB, NBR and BB 鈥� started working in a coordinated manner to avert discrepancies in statistics in future.
鈥榃e have already received revised data from the NBR and working on it. But it is not possible to say when the revised export data will be published,鈥� he told 抖阴精品 on Wednesday.
Some errors, including multiple entries, the entry of FoB value for CMT (cut, make and trim) exports, and double counting of local exports from the export processing zones, have been identified as the primary reasons for the inflated export figures, Anwar said.
The EPB vice-chairman also said that they would work on establishing a common definition of exports to avoid ambiguity, as the NBR considered shipments of samples and gifts as exports, while the Bangladesh Bank did not.
The Bangladesh Bank recently revised the country鈥檚 export earnings data for the July-April period of FY 24 downward by $13.80 billion to $33.68 billion from the EPB-provided figure of $47.47 billion in the same period.
It also revised export earnings data for the July-April of FY23 downward by $9.54 billion to $36.14 billion from $45.68 billion.
The central bank said that the NBR revised and provided the export shipment data to it and the EPB by adjusting multiple entries.
The BB said that it compiled the export data (FoB) based on local sales and CMT (cutting, making and trimming) and other issues.
CMT export involves fabric and yarn provided free of cost, which are then converted into garments and exported.
The responsibility for the overestimated export figure lies solely with the NBR, as it prepared the primary data and provided it to all other government agencies, a commerce ministry official claimed.
He claimed that multiple entries, failure to adjust CMT, double counting of local exports from EPZs, inclusion of samples as exports, and differences in the dollar rate between the Bangladesh Bank and the NBR were the main reasons for the inflated export figure.
The official also said that not only the EPB but also the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics collected export data from the NBR, resulting in the statistics of both the EPB and the BBS being the same since they both sourced their primary data from the NBR.
