The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) is set to publish export data based on a new calculation after months of a hiatus following the revelation that there were significant discrepancies between its data and that of the central bank in the last fiscal year.

The bureau informed Salehuddin Ahmed, the interim government's finance and commerce adviser, at a meeting at Bangladesh Secretariat yesterday that they had already revised the export data.

"We've discussed a wide range of issues including export data as there were some issues between the export data of EPB and NBR (National Board of Revenue)," Salehuddin told journalists after the meeting.

"I've asked them (EPB) to ensure consistency in the final export data and it will be done as soon as possible. I've also asked them (EPB) to make a projection," he said.

Salehuddin said an EPB board meeting would be held soon where all such matters would be finalised.

On July 3, Bangladesh Bank (BB) released data of the balance of payments (BoP) for the July-April period of fiscal year 2023-24.

It showed that the country's exports were nearly $14 billion below the figure reported earlier by the EPB.

At that time, the central bank discovered six types of statistical wrongdoings which had led to inflated export data.

The EPB stopped publishing export data from July of 2024.

EPB officials said they have met with the NBR, Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority, Bangladesh Bank, and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics to discuss ways of collecting accurate export data.

They also said to have gathered export data from these organisations.

However, Bangladesh Bank has continued to publish export data.

In its latest BoP data, the Bangladesh Bank reported that the export value stood at $40.8 billion in FY24, down nearly 6 percent year-on-year.

The EPB officials said there may be some differences between the data from the central bank and that from the EPB as the central bank's figures are based on the receipt of export proceeds while the EPB's figures are based on shipment data.

Salehuddin said it was not possible to say at this time whether the new export data would have an impact on GDP calculations. Details can be provided later, he said.

Commerce Secretary Md Selim Uddin, EPB Vice Chairman Md Anwar Hossain, and other senior officials were present at the meeting.

BUDGET REVISION

Regarding budget revision, finance adviser Salehuddin met with the budget officials a couple of days ago.

"I told them to rationalise unnecessary and wasteful allocations," he said.

The key revision will focus on the expenditure of Annual Development Programme (ADP), and the planning ministry would handle it.

Small changes will be made in the revenue budget, he said. However, Salehuddin has not provided any timeline.