Loan Facilities for foreign owned/controlled companies




i) Borrowing from abroad by industrial enterprises

Proposals for borrowing from abroad by private sector industrial enterprises registered with Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) shall require prior authorization of BIDA. Other entities under the preview of Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA), Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) and Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority (BHTPA) shall require prior authorization from Bangladesh Bank.

ii) Medium & Long Term Loan from Off-shore Banking Unit (OBU) of scheduled banks

Private sector industrial enterprises and the entities operating in special zones i.e. Export Processing Zones (EPZ), Economic Zones (EZ), and Hi-Tech Parks (HTP)-can obtain medium and long term foreign currency loans from the Offshore Banking Units (OBU) of scheduled banks in Bangladesh. However, such borrowing requires prior approval from the Bangladesh Bank through its Foreign Exchange Investment Department.

iii) Term loan in Taka to foreign owned/controlled companies

Foreign owned/controlled companies engaged in manufacturing or services output activities for three years or longer in Bangladesh can access Taka term loans from the domestic market. This is to mention here that total debt of the firm/company does not exceed the 50:50 debt equity ratio.

iv) Working capital loans from abroad by foreign owned or controlled firms

Foreign owned/controlled firms are free to access to short term working capital loans (Interest free/interest bearing) from parent companies/shareholders. Short term working capital loan is also admissible with interest at 3% for maximum 6 years from the date of inception of manufacturing/service output activities by the borrowing enterprises.

v) Working capital loans for foreign owned or controlled firms from local banks

Foreign owned/controlled firms/companies can freely access to local banks for working capital financing on the basis of normal banker customer relationship.


References:

  • FE Circular No. 04 dated 23/04/2024
  • FE Circular No. 04 dated 01/02/2024
  • FE Circular No. 04 dated 19/01/2021
  • FE Circular No. 21 dated 16/05/2019
  • FE Circular No. 19 dated 05/05/2019
  • FE Circular Letter No. 01 dated 18/03/2024
  • BRPD Circular No. 02 dated 25/02/2019
  • BRPD Circular Letter No. 31 dated 18/06/2020
  • BRPD Circular Letter No. 09 dated 27/05/2019
  • FEID Circular Letter No. 03 dated 06/05/2014
  • Paragraph 33(a)(b), Chapter 7, GFET, 2018
  • Paragraph 25, Chapter 8, GFET, 2018
  • Paragraph 1,7 & 9, Chapter 15, GFET, 2018
  • Paragraph 17(A), (B),(C) & Paragraph 22, 23, 24, Section-II, Paragraph 4(A), 4(C), Section-I, Chapter 16, GFET, 2018
  • Based on Notification No. BOI/R&IM1/4(39)/81(Part)/1209 of Board of Investment now BIDA) dated 10/12/1998 [Appendix 6/1 of GFET, 2018, Vol 1]