Government must come forward to arrest the default loan culture in banking sector: Dr Khatun

Published in Asian Age on Wednesday 12 June 2019

Arrest default loan culture: Experts

Experts and economists of the country are of the view that the owners of the banks and top loan defaulters are controlling the financial sector worsening  the national economy as a whole.They opined that the unity of the top loan defaulters and the bank owners to control the financial sector has created a deadlock in the national economy .
Ibrahim Khaled, former Deputy Govern of the Bangladesh Bank said that the central bank has shifted from the rules adopted on classified loans. He said the relaxation in realizing classified loans has created barrier to economic development of the country. He said the banking sector, the stock market and other sectors of the economy has been playing positive rules in the  national economy.
It may be noted here that the Bangladesh Bank in a notice issued on Monday said that the total amount of defaultered loans has soared to Taka  110,873 crore , the highest ever in the country.The amount of bad loans has increased by Taka 22,000 crore in the last one year. According to the Bangladesh Bank last year more than 52 percent of the defaulted loans were with the eight state-run banks.
Dr Fahmida Khatun, Executive Director of CPD told The Asian Age that borrowing from the state owned banks has become a sick culture involving only eight banks over the years. Expressing her concern over the default  culture in the state run banks she said that it was not desirable. She stressed the need of the government to come forward in arresting the bad culture.
Prof Abu Ahmad of Dhaka university said that the government sould come forward to address the issue immediately.
Professor Anu Muhammad Jahangirnagar University stressed the need for introducing a new law to control the default culture in the country.
Bangladesh Bank reported that forty private banks had default loans amounting to Taka 49,950 crore up by 31 percent by the end of March this year.