New Delhi, June 27 (IANS) Bangladesh Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury told parliament that the country’s total external debt stood at $78.22 billion as of March this year, and warned that the country’s debt‑servicing obligations are set to rise in coming years, a new report has said.

Around 61.97 per cent of the external debt is concessional while 38.03 per cent is non‑concessional, the report from Dhaka-based The Business Standard cited the minister as saying.

Further, the minister noted that access to highly concessional financing has dropped since Bangladesh moved from low‑income to lower‑middle‑income status, according to a World Bank assessment.

He told parliament that the growing volume of foreign borrowing will increase future principal and interest repayment burdens.

The finance minister also mentioned precautionary measures undertaken by the administration for sustainable debt management.

“Proposals for new foreign loans and related development projects are being scrutinised more rigorously to avoid financing unnecessary or low-priority projects through high-interest external borrowing,” the media house cited the minister.

The government is only considering projects with high economic returns for foreign financing, he told parliament.

Khosru also informed that the government has strengthened monitoring of foreign-funded projects to curb the long-standing practice of project delays and cost overruns.

Further, the government is updating its Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy (MTDS) and conducting a Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) to strengthen the resilience and sustainability of public debt management.

Earlier this month, the media house argued that the estimated losses from corruption, overpricing, inefficiency, and systemic extraction could possibly exceed the country’s budget deficit.

The National Board of Revenue has assigned a collection target of about Tk 6 lakh crore for the country but analysts warned that a substantial shortfall has been occurring repeatedly.

The government has proposed a budget of approximately Tk 9.3 lakh crore and projected a fiscal deficit of roughly Tk 2.43 lakh crore, equivalent to about 3.7 per cent of GDP.

—IANS

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