Both outstanding and classified loans of state-owned enterprises (SoEs) to five state-owned commercial banks (SoCBs) are on the rise again due to delay in making repayments, officials said.
Many of these SoEs fail to pay back loans to the SoCBs as they continue incurring losses for years, they added.
As of August last, outstanding debt liabilities reached Tk 83.22 billion, up by Tk 2.17 billion from the previous month. Besides, SoEs' classified loans increased by Tk 770 million to Tk 2.76 billion in August from Tk 1.99 billion in July.
Statistics show that outstanding loans of SoEs with Sonali Bank stood at Tk 52.33 billion in August while with Janata Bank Tk 19.01 billion, Agrani Bank Tk 2.25 billion, Rupali Bank Tk 7.51 billion and BASIC Bank Tk 2.11 billion.
On the other hand, classified loans with Sonali Bank stood at Tk 2.29 billion in August, Tk 107 million with Janata Bank, Tk 85 million with Agrani Bank, Tk 277 million with Rupali Bank, and Tk 0.2 million with BASIC Bank.
Statistics show that classified loans of SoEs with Sonali Bank increased by Tk 770 million in August compared to July while in case of other banks, it remains unchanged. The four other banks could not regularise classified loans during the month.
In August, outstanding loans with Janata Bank increased by Tk 3.02 billion while in case of other banks, the amount of loans declined to some extent.
Figure shows that Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation (BTMC) has a total of Tk 251.90 million outstanding funded liabilities to the SoCBs and the total amount has become classified.
Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) has outstanding loans of Tk 7.344 billion of which Tk 116.70 million is classified while Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC) has outstanding and classified loans of Tk 388.20 million and Tk 4.0 million respectively.
Statistics show that in August, Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) has outstanding loans of Tk 45.31 billion, Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) has unpaid loans of Tk 11.15 billion of which Tk 719 million is classified, and Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation has outstanding loans of Tk 8.06 billion to those banks.
The state-owned transportation and communications sector organisations have outstanding loans of Tk 5.43 billion of which Tk 5.42 billion is of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, commercial organisations have outstanding loans of Tk 179 million, agriculture and fisheries sector organisation BADC (Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation) have outstanding loans of Tk 12.50 billion, and service sector organisations have outstanding loans of Tk 123.60 million.
When contacted over telephone Sunday, managing director of a SoCB said high-ups of both SoEs and private sector people are somehow convinced that they would not face any difficulties if they don't repay the loans of SoCBs.
"So, despite continuous persuasion they hardly pay attention to repayment of loans," he said preferring anonymity.
The central bank has been giving regular instructions to the high-ups of the SoCBs to downsize their amount of outstanding and default loans, a senior official of Bangladesh Bank told the FE earlier.
"We are trying to help reduce outstanding and classified loans of the SoEs through various steps. The banks have been asked to consult the SoEs so that they can make timely repayments of loans," he said.
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