DHAKA, June 13 (Xinhua) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Tuesday approved a 400 million U.S. dollars loan to support Bangladesh’s economic recovery.

This loan is ADB’s second subprogram of the Sustainable Economic Recovery Program launched in October 2021 to support economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Manila-based lender said in a statement.

“This subprogram enables Bangladesh to enhance revenues, promote efficiency and transparency in public spending and public procurement, deepen the reforms of state-owned enterprises, and help small businesses and microentrepreneurs to access low-interest affordable credits from the banking sector,” said Aminur Rahman, ADB Principal Public Management Economist for South Asia.

“The subprogram, with a strong focus on gender, climate change, and digitization, enables the government to strengthen its efforts to support income generation for the poor and vulnerable.”

The program will enhance income tax collection through the adoption of the new Income Tax Act, reduce tax loopholes, strengthen compliance and enforcement measures, and broaden the country’s tax net, said the bank.

The new package supports the launch by the Bangladesh Bank of innovative financing services through commercial banks to provide low-cost microcredit using digital channels and e-wallets, said the bank.(Xinhua)