The country's export statistics are being hazy. After the end of the 2022-23 financial year last June, the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) said that exports of goods increased by 6.67 percent. On the other hand, according to the data of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), exports have decreased by 5 percent. And Bangladesh Bank said last week that the income of export of goods came $12 billion less than the estimate given by EPB. This has again raised questions about the export earnings figures.

 

 

 

 

EPB regularly publishes statistics on the export of products in the country by collecting the primary data on commodity exports from NBR. And Bangladesh Bank gives the information officially of how much export income has come to the country.

According to the data of EPB, in the last financial year 2022-23, products worth $55.56 billion were exported from Bangladesh. In the previous financial year, exports were worth $52.08 billion. Accordingly, exports increased by 3.47 billion (6.67 percent) in the financial year 2022-23.

On the other hand, NBR calculates the customs value of export goods. According to that, in the last financial year 2022-23, Bangladesh exported goods worth $46.59 billion. In the previous financial year, exports were worth $49.13 billion. As a result, exports fell by $2.45 billion (5 percent) in the financial year 2022-23. However, NBR calculates in Taka. The above calculation is based on the average dollar exchange rate calculated by EPB.

According to NBR data, exports of goods volume also declined. In the last financial year 2022-23, the export of goods was 60 lakh 18 thousand tons which was 67 lakh 79 thousand tons in the previous financial year. According to that, in the fiscal year 2022-23, exports decreased by 7 lakh 61 thousand tons or 11 percent.

Meanwhile, according to the data of Bangladesh Bank, in the last financial year 2022-23, the export income of the country was $43.57 billion dollars. The previous financial year came with $43.60 billion. This means that last financial year export income decreased by $30 million.

Arround 85 percent of Bangladesh's product exports are ready-made garments. For a year now, some of the garment industry entrepreneurs have been publicly and privately doubting the export figures of ready-made garments published by EPB. They argue that after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, inflation in the United States and European Union (EU) countries increased. As a result, consumers reduce purchases of non-essential products. It also reduces the sale of clothes. Production in the country has also been more or less disrupted due to gas-electricity.

Garment entrepreneurs think that the shortfall in export earnings should be fixed quickly. They also urged to involve government departments as well as BGMEA and BKMEA and economists to find out where the discrepancies are. Otherwise, the exporters as well as the country's economy will suffer, mistakes in statistics will cause problems in policy making and  there will also be problems in the state's balance of payments, they believe.