The visiting International Monetary Fund mission at a meeting with Finance Division officials on Thursday expressed concern over slow progress in bank reform and low revenue generation.
The meeting was held at the secretariat in the capital Dhaka.
Led by Chris Papageorgiou, the IMF mission said that the delay would make the recapitalisation of the weak banks by the government ineffective and worsen inflation.
The Bangladesh Bank has finalised merging of five Shariah-based banks by injecting about Tk 35,000 crore after they became sick following alleged loan theft by sponsor directors.
The banks are First Security Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank, Global Islami Bank, Union Bank and EXIM Bank and the merged entity initially would be a state-owned bank under the name of Sammilito Islamic Bank.
The Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday took control of five Shariah-based banks after appointing administrators to each as part of a resolution plan to safeguard depositors鈥� interests and restore confidence in the banking sector.
The IMF mission, however, said that the injection of fund for the paid-up capital of the new entity would increase inflation while the government had been struggling to ease it quickly.
On Wednesday, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics recorded the rate of inflation at 8.17 per cent in October, slightly down from 8.36 per cent in September.
The 12-month inflation between November 2024 and October 2025 has been recorded at 9.22, showing that inflation eased slowly after hitting double digit over the past two years.
The interim government has targeted bringing down the overall inflation at 6.5 per cent by June 2026.
Finance Division secretary Khairuzzaman Mazumder who led the local side at the meeting said that the revenue collection growth would rise once the Revenue Policy Division and the Revenue Management Division started functioning in December.
The government formed the two divisions by abolishing the National Board of Revenue to bolster revenue generation.
Earlier, the IMF mission linked to the fifth review of the current $5.5 billion loan programme to Bangladesh and Article IV, an annual review of its member countries, said more growth in revenue generation was needed for maintaining targeted budget deficit.
The National Board of Revenue collected Tk聽90,825 crore in July鈥揝eptember of the 2025鈥�26 financial year, marking 20.21 per cent growth on Tk聽75,554.78 crore collected in the same period of FY25. It fell short of the target by Tk 33, 925 crore in the quarter.
The government has given the NBR collection target of Tk 4.99 lakh crore for the FY26.
The IMF will conclude its mission on November 13.
The IMF has so far disbursed $3.6 billion under the loan programme.
During the last disbursement in June 2025, the IMF also increased the overall loan amount to $5.5 billion from original $4.7 billion.
