DHAKA: Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said Bangladesh’s trade deficit with members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation stood at Tk 37,700.7 crore till April of the current fiscal.
He said during first 10 months of the current fiscal, Bangladesh earned Tk 3364.9 crore from export to India while spent Tk 38,105.4 crore on importing goods.
Bangladesh earned Tk 381.2 crore from export to Pakistan while spent Tk 3175.1 crore on import in the same period.
Export-earnings from Sri Lanka was Tk 156.4 crore while Bangladesh had to pay Tk 284.8 crore on import bill from the Island nation.
Bangladesh spent Tk 199.1 crore on importing goods from Bhutan and earned only Tk 29.7 crore from export.
The export earnings from Nepal was Tk 161 crore when the import spending Tk 88.5 crore, while the country earned Tk 29.5 crore from export to Afghanistan while imported goods worth Tk 7.2 crore from there.
From the Maldives, Bangladesh earned Tk 41.2 crore through export and spent Tk 4.5 crore on import.
The Commerce Minister also said the trade deficit with the Saarc member countries in 2013-14 fiscal was Tk 47,554.7 crore while it was Tk 37,293.2 crore in 2012-13 fiscal.