Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– The central bank of Bangladesh has asked seven state-owned banks (SoBs) for taking effective measures to settle farm loans dispute amicably instead of filling certificate cases against farmers, officials said.
The instruction was made at a meeting of the managing directors and chief executive officers of the six SoBs held at the central bank headquarters in Dhaka with Bangladesh Bank (BB) Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury in the chair.
The BB’s latest move came against the backdrop of rising trend in the number of certificate cases against farmers across the country.
The number of unsettled certificate cases stood rose to 205,372 as of November 30, 2014 from 202,274 as of January 31 last year while the classified loans involving the certificate cases stood at BDT 5.70 billion from BDT 5.53 billion.
“The central bank is thinking to issue a guideline for rescheduling agriculture loans aiming to facilitate farmers,” Mr. Chowdhury told BBN in Dhaka after the meeting.
He also said the SoBs have been asked to expedite loans recovery drives using persuasion instead of filing certificate cases against farmers.
The banks are Sonali Bank Limited, Janata Bank Limited, Agrani Bank Limited, Rupali Bank Limited, BASIC Bank Limited, Bangladesh Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank.
“We’ve asked the state-owned banks for taking effective measures to achieve the agriculture loan disbursement target by the end of this fiscal,” the deputy governor noted.
Disbursement of agriculture loan fell nearly 4.0 per cent to BDT 84.88 billion in the July-January period of the current fiscal year (FY) 2014-15 from BDT 88.20 billion in same period of the FY 14.
Of BDT 84.88 billion, seven state-owned banks disbursed BDT 48.47 billion, and the remaining BDT 36.42 billion was disbursed by the private commercial banks (PCBs) and foreign commercial banks (FCBs), the BB data showed.
All scheduled banks have achieved nearly 55 per cent of their annual agricultural loan disbursement target for the ongoing fiscal (FY) 2014-15, fixed at BDT 155.50 billion.
BBN/SSR/AD-16Feb15-11:30 pm (BST)
