Import LC cash margin: do not invent a percentage
The question desks are asked
Importers ask for “the Bangladesh Bank margin” as if it were a two-line tariff: one rate for raw materials and one rate for consumer goods. FEPD-1 Circular No. 30 of 13 August 2026 is the consolidated import circular an AD is told to follow. A reading of the stored text of that circular does not produce one cash-margin percentage for all industrial raw materials and another for all consumer goods. Stating a number on a customer letter, because a training note from another year had a number, is how banks publish a rule that is not in the circular.
What the circular is
Circular 30 updates and replaces the earlier consolidated import instructions, except for reporting instructions that remain in the Guidelines for Foreign Exchange Transactions, Volume 2, as the circular itself says. It regulates how authorised dealers handle import payments, letters of credit, reporting to OIMS, and back-to-back facilities. Where it wants a numeric limit, it states a period or a condition, such as the usance discussion in Part D or the value-addition cross-reference in Part G. It does not, in the text this portal holds, set a universal cash-margin grid.
Product-specific instructions
A margin can still exist. It would be in the instruction that imposes it: a later circular, a circular letter, or a paragraph aimed at named goods. The correct desk step is to find that instruction and cite it, with its number and date. If you cannot find it, the honest answer is that Circular 30 does not state a single pair of percentages. It is not that the margin is zero. Absence from this consolidated text is not a waiver of a specific direction that another instrument imposes.
Bank security is separate
Credit policy may require the applicant to place cash, a lien on a deposit, or other security before an LC is issued. That requirement comes from the sanction and the bank’s policy. It should be labelled as the bank’s requirement. It should not be labelled “as per Bangladesh Bank margin” unless a Bangladesh Bank text you can point to says so. Customers compare banks. A false citation spreads.
Where to look next
Use the research box and name the goods. Look at Circular 30, then at any product circular the search actually returns. Do not fill the gap with a percentage from memory. The same discipline applies to guarantee margins and to EDF pricing. Different instructions, different numbers, and only the instruction in front of you.
Source
Bangladesh Bank, FEPD-1 Circular No. 30, 13 August 2026. The stored text of that consolidated import circular does not state a single cash-margin pair for raw materials versus consumer goods. No percentage is given here. Open the cited source.
Frequently asked questions
What margin does Circular 30 set for consumer goods?
It does not set one percentage for all consumer goods and another for all industrial raw materials. A margin, where one exists, is in the instruction that actually imposes it.
Is an FTZ “margin account” the same thing?
No. The only “margin” wording in the stored Circular 30 text that is easy to misread is about designated margin accounts for FTZ enterprises. That is not an import LC cash margin.
May the bank still take cash security?
A bank’s own credit decision can require cash or other security. That is sanction. It is not a Bangladesh Bank percentage invented for this page.