Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal
The top 10 defaulters are¬ -- Samannaz Super Oil Ltd (Tk 1,049 crore), Galaxy Sweater and Yarn Dyeing Ltd (Tk 984 crore), Rimex Footwear Ltd (Tk 976 crore), Quantum Power Systems Ltd (Tk 828 crore), Maheen Enterprise Ltd (Tk 825 crore), Rupali Composite Leather Wear Ltd (Tk 798 crore), Crescent Leather Products Ltd (Tk 776 crore), SA Oil Refinery Ltd (Tk 707 crore), Suprov Composite Knit Ltd (Tk 610 crore) and Grameen Shakti (Tk 601 crore).
Mustafa Kamal also disclosed a list of borrowers who took more than Tk 5 crore from all banks, finance and public sector having outstanding amount 5 crore and bellow.
The list showed that some 14,617 individuals and institutions took loans of Tk 1,741,348 crore since 2009 while Tk 100,183 crore got defaulted.
Responding to a tabled starred question from Workers Party MP elected for reserved women seat Lutfun Nesa Khan, the Finance Minister said the number of loan defaulters in September 2015 was 111,954 involving Tk 59,105 crore while the number increased to 170,390 with Tk 102,315.19 crore in December 2018.
He pointed out reasons of both home and abroad which were beyond control but affected the businessmen and entrepreneurs raising the number of the loan defaulters.
Mustafa Kamal also held banks responsible for not choosing good borrowers.
He said the deficiency of collateral against loan, depositing same asset in more than one banks or loans, showing the value of collateral higher than the actual market price causes risk to any loan. “As a result, there’s a strong possibility to transform the loan into bad one.”
The Finance Minister said a stagnant situation prevails if any loan gets defaulted and this leads to a hurdle for both loan distribution and collection.
He said the government has given a special loan facility for rescheduling the long unpaid loans and one-time exit on May 16, 2019, aiming to maintain the normal flow of loans for the production sectors and others and reduce the defaulted loans and ensure economic development of the country.
“With this, (we) hope the amount of unpaid loans will decline in the banking sector,” he added.
Replying to Israfil Alam’s question, the minister said the government provided Tk 13,612.60 crore from 2015-16 fiscal year to 2018-19 to some banks which had been suffering from capital shortfall.
Replying to a question from ruling party MP Haji Mohammad Salim, he said state-owned commercial and specialised banks waived the interest to the tune of Tk 1198.24 crore last year against 6163 loans.
Agrani Bank Ltd waived the highest amount of Tk 494 crore against 2008 loans while Bangladesh Krishi Bank Tk 435 crore against 66 loans, Rupali Bank Ltd Tk 134 crore against 203 loans, Sonali Bank Ltd Tk 73 crore against 14 loans, Janata Bank Ltd Tk 54 crore against 2473 loans, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank Tk 4.35 crore against 1380 loans and BASIC Bank Ltd waived Tk 1.69 crore against 19 loans.
Bangladesh Development Bank did not waive any interest during the period, he said.