A leading business firm of the country paid an import bill of US $ 400,000 to a bank last week. He paid a total of Tk 44 million at the official rate of Tk 110 per USD.
However, they had to pay an additional 13 taka per dollar through payment order. In total, he paid Tk 5.2 million through the payment order. Thus, the business firm had to pay 123 taka per dollar. Although the official price of USD is Tk 110 across all banks, the actual price is much higher.
Most of the import agencies are facing the same problem. While some influential businessmen are buying dollars from banks at a relatively lower rate, common people have to buy dollars at a higher rate than the declared rate to repay import debts.
Similarly, when common traders are struggling to open Letters of Credit (LC), big and influential people are taking advantage of the banks.
