He said that many traders have to open letters of credit (LC) to buy dollars at a price higher than the fixed rate, which affects the import of goods.
Mehboob said, the BB Governor has been requested not to increase the interest rate of bank loans by a large margin as businesses are already facing difficulties in the depreciation of the domestic currency taka.
Sources present at the meeting said the Governor assured businesses that the interest rate is now decided based on the smart rate system and there is no option in the current system to increase the interest rate to abnormal levels.
In the new system, the lending rate for banks will be set at SMART (six-month moving average interest rate) plus a margin of up to 3 percent.
The Smart Reference Lending Rate will be decided based on 182-day Treasury Bills and announced on the first working day of each month. The central bank controls the interest rates on T-bills and T-bonds.