Published in The Daily Observer on Thursday, 9 June 2016
19 SoEs owe over Tk 27,512cr to banks
Mizanur Rahman
The outstanding dues of 19 state-owned enterprises (SoEs) up to February this year with various banks stood at about Tk 27,512.23 crore, of which classified loan is Tk 186.37 crore.
However, the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Executive Director Prof Mustafizur Rahman suggested that the government should consider offloading shares of the SoEs in the capital market to help achieve its revenue earning target.
The government is subsidizing these enterprises on the one hand and on the other the outstanding dues of these enterprises with the nationalized banks are increasing day by day. Because of these enterprises the nationalized banks are earning the stigma of failure in recovering default loans, the CPD top official observed.
According to the Bangladesh Economic Survey 2016, the amount of classified loans of the 19 SoEs stood at Tk 186.37 crore, which is 0.68 per cent of the total disbursed loans.
These SoEs are Power Development Board-PDB (Tk 11,078.68crore), Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation-BSFIC (Tk 4004.98 crore), Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation-BPC (Tk 3,743.26 crore), Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation-BCIC (Tk 3,026.83 crore), Bangladesh Oil Gas and Mineral Corporation-BOGMC (Tk 1,404.79 crore), Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation-BJMC (Tk 1217.03 crore), Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation-BADC (Tk 1027.82 crore), Water Development Board-WDB (Tk 628.70 crore) and Dhaka WASA (Tk 301.02 crore).
The SoEs facing default loans are: BCIC (Tk 89.52 crore), BTMC (Tk 26.34 crore), BJMC (Tk 22.93 crore), BADC (Tk 21.27 crore), Bangladesh Tourism Board-BTB (Tk 10.52 crore) and Bangladesh Trading Corporation-TCB (Tk 11.03 crore).
Sources said the SoEs managed to maintain 6 per cent growth in terms of gaining profit, thanks to a major leap in the earnings of the BPC in the outgoing fiscal year 2015-16, officials and experts said.
They, however, gave full credit of the growth to a significant fall in the prices of petroleum products in the global market.
Bangladesh Economic Review data show: Of the total 47 SoEs, 33 made a profit of Tk 11,786.37 crore while 11 incurred losses to the tune of Tk 1824.53 crore in the current fiscal year.
The government has to provide bulk of subsidies every year in order to maintain many of these SoEs. Most of them have become loss making entities.
When contacted, a senior official at the Ministry of Finance said various measures have been taken by the management to minimise the level of irregularities and wastage.
“The BPC has been incurring losses over the last few years because of irregularities and wastage. At the same time, fall in global prices of petroleum products also has contributed to the performance,” he added.