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Private sector enterprises owe Tk 130b
NCBs under liquidity pressure
Shakhawat Hossain
3/29/2006
The state owned entities and the sector corporations owe over Tk 130 billion to the nationalised commercial banks (NCBs).
The NCBs are now in the midst of a liquidity pressure due to the non-recovery of such a huge stuck-up fund.
An inter-ministerial meeting held recently at the Finance Division discussed the issue elaborately.
"A huge fund of the NCBs, which is now stuck up with the state owned entities and the sector corporations, is putting pressure on their liquidity and other performances," Additional Secretary, Finance Division, Abdul Majid, who presided over the meeting, said.
The meeting was told that the failure to repay the loan by the sector corporations and state owned bodies coupled with indecision on the part of the NCBs to take stern steps in recovering the loans has created an undesirable situation.
"It is proper time for the NCBs to recover their non-performing loans to accelerate the pace of the ongoing financial sector reforms programme," he added.
Of the total amount that state-owned entities and sector corporations owe to NCBs, Tk 1.33 billion has turned classified.
Representatives of the NCBs said Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) alone owe more than 53 per cent or Tk 70 billion to NCBs. The Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) owes Tk 25.75 billion and the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) some Tk 10 billion.
The Sonali Bank officials who attended the meeting said the bank has of late become one of the biggest clients in the call money market due to liquidity crisis.
But the bank used to be treated as the biggest provider of funds to the call money market in the recent past, he said.
The meeting stressed the need for intervention by the higher authority to ensure repayments of loans by the BPC and the BJMC.
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