Finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed on Tuesday said that they would consider alternative options if tough conditions were attached to the ongoing $5.5 billion loan programme by the International Monetary Fund.
鈥楧efinitely, we will give a second look at the budget support,鈥� said Salehuddin while talking to reporters after the second day of the joint meeting of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington.
The interim government will not entertain any unfriendly IMF conditions, added the finance adviser, according to a message received in Dhaka on Wednesday.
To overcome a serious shortage of foreign currency reserves in the country, a 4.7 billion loan programme from the IMF was initiated in January 2023 by the Awami League government, which was ousted on August 5 past year in a mass uprising.
The interim government, which assumed power on August 8 past year, has continued the loan programme.
As of June 2025, the multilateral lender released about $3.6 billion under the loan programme.
During the release of the fourth and fifth tranches of the loan in past June, the IMF raised the loan to $5.5 billion following requests from Dhaka.
The programme period has also been extended by six months to January 2027 from July 2026.
Salehuddin鈥檚 comments came ahead of the IMF mission in the capital Dhaka later this month in connection with the next tranche of the loan and the improvement on the balance of payment.
Thanks to about 12 per cent growth in the inflow of remittance to total at $7.58 billion in July-September of the 2025-26 financial year compared with that of $6.54 billion in the same period of the past financial year and 5.6 per cent year-on-year growth in exports during the same period, pressure on the balance of payment eased.
On Tuesday, the BB purchased $38 million from six commercial banks, bringing the central bank鈥檚 total dollar purchases to $2.13 billion over the past three months.
Referring to discussions held on Tuesday with IMF officials, the finance adviser said that the IMF wanted a cut in tax on carbonated drinks.
The finance adviser said that he dismissed the proposal at this point of the financial year.
On the ongoing tax reform being carried out for revenue generation, the finance adviser reassured the IMF officials about the commitment of introducing a unified value-added tax.
Finance secretary Khairuzzaman Majumder, who is accompanying the finance adviser in the United States, told reporters that they were discussing with the World Bank over a $500 million loan.
The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency under the WB Group expressed willingness to provide the loan to be utilised for the export development fund, said the finance secretary.
Established by the Bangladesh Bank to provide pre-shipment financing in foreign currency to manufacturer-exporters for importing inputs, the EDF allows authorised dealer banks to borrow the US dollars and lend them to exporters, facilitating trade and export growth.聽
The finance secretary said that the EDF had been run with the country鈥檚 foreign exchange reserves.
Noting that the MIGA loan could ease pressure on the foreign exchange reserves, the finance secretary said that the country needed fund to support the export-oriented sector ahead of its graduation from the least developed country bloc on November 24, 2026.
The forthcoming LDC graduation will bring to an end to the offering to the businesses by the government direct cash incentive, amount of which reached about Tk聽10,000 crore in FY25.
