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‘Four SoBs facing Tk 76b capital deficit’

Food inflation rises in Q1


February 27, 2018 00:00:00


Four state-owned banks (SoBs) -- Sonali Bank, Rupali Bank, Janata Bank and Basic Bank- are facing a capital deficit of Tk 76.26 billion (7626.23 crore), Finance Minister AMA Muhith told Parliament on Monday, reports UNB.

Among the 57 banks in the country, the four state-owned banks and three private banks face the capital crisis as per the data collected on September 30, 2017, he said while responding to a tabled starred question.

"The amount of capital deficit in the four state-owned banks is Tk 76.26 billion and that in three private banks is Tk 17.91 billion. So, the total capital deficit in the (seven) banks is Tk 9.41 billion," said the Finance Minister.

The three private banks are Bangladesh Commerce Bank, Farmers Bank and ICB Bank.

The capital deficit is Tk 31.40 billion (3,140.41 crore) in Sonali Bank, while Tk 25.22 billion in Basic Bank, Tk 12.72 billion in Janata Bank and Tk 6.89 billion in Rupali Bank.

Meanwhile, Muhith admitted that the food inflation in the first quarter of the current fiscal (2017-18) increased but the non-food one marked a fall.

He made the statement while placing the report on budget implementation progress of the first quarter (July-Sept), the trend of income and expenditure, and macroeconomic analysis.

The finance minister said the food inflation in July was 6.95 per cent, while 7.32 per cent in August and 7.87 in September. The 12 months average after the quarter is 6.72 per cent.

The food inflation in the mentioned months was 4.35 percent, 4.30 percent and 5.10 in the first quarter of the 2016-17 fiscal. The 12 months average after the quarter is 4.56 percent.

The non-food inflation in the first three months of the running fiscal was 3.53, 3.75 and 3.44 per cent while it was 6.97, 7 and 6.19 per cent during the same period of the last fiscal year.

The 12 months average after the quarter of the current fiscal is 3.81 per cent while it was 7.48 per cent in the previous fiscal.

The overall inflation in the stipulated three months of the current fiscal was 5.57, 5.89 and 6.12 per cent which was 5.40, 5.37 and 5.71 per cent in the previous fiscal.

The 12 months average after the quarter of the 2017-18 fiscal is 5.55 per cent while it was 5.71 during the last fiscal.

Muhith said although the first quarter of the last fiscal saw a negative growth in earning from the remittance, the situation is improving gradually. "The remittance inflow has increased by 4.4 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal compared to the previous year."

Highlighting some key macroeconomic indicators during the first quarter (July-Sept) of the current fiscal year, he said the revenue collection under the NBR rose by 19.3 per cent, the overall public expenditure increased by 8.7 per cent, the ADP implementation rate was 10.2 per cent that was 8.7 per cent in the last fiscal, export earnings rose to 8.7 per cent which was 8.1 per cent in the previous year, import expenditure increased by 28.4 per cent to $ 13.2 billion, the growth for opening import LCs is 36.5 per cent, the private sector credit flow increased by 17.8 per cent while the rate of general point-to-point inflation came down to 5.5 per cent from 5.7 per cent in September last.

About the overall revenue collection scenario during the first quarter, Muhith said about Tk 511.28 billion (51,128 crore) were collected during the first quarter which was about 17.8 per cent of the budgetary target which is 17.1 per cent higher than the previous year.

He said the revenue collection target in the current fiscal year was earlier set at Tk 2879.9 billion (287, 990 crore).


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