Dhaka, April 18 -- Once again, the National Board of Revenue, the country's principal revenue collection authority, finds itself in a tight spot as it scrambles this time to satisfy the International Monetary Fund's conditions for Bangladesh to unlock the 4th tranche of a $4.7 billion loan program entered under the deposed Awami League regime in early 2023.

In a meeting held in Dhaka on April 7, the IMF essentially asked the NBR to collect some Tk 2 lakh crore in the last quarter of the ongoing fiscal to meet the conditions for release of the last two trenches of the $4.7 billion loan.

The IMF had earlier suspended disbursement of the fourth tranche of its $4.7 billion loan package to Bangladesh, citing non-compliance with key reform co...