Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said Wednesday one of his priorities would be to straighten out the problems of the country's banking sector as early as possible.
"The sector is getting high priority compared to other sectors under finance ministry. We're working on to resolve the problems and strengthen the sector," he said.
Mr Kamal was briefing the media after a meeting with officials of financial institutions division at his secretariat office on the day.
He said some banking sector-related laws are found flawed and those need to be amended.
"The volume of non-performing loans (NPLs) could have come down drastically had we implemented the existing laws properly," the minister uttered.
"But some of our laws have certain flaws, which we will revisit soon," he stated.
After defaulting on repayment of bank loans, Mr Kamal said, borrowers go to the court to have a shield. It makes the loan recovery a lengthy process.
"We don't want the public money to go to wrong hands," he said.
"Our announcement is clear: whoever takes money either from a public or a private bank, whoever borrows money, he or she has to repay it in time, along with interest," Mr Kamal asserted.
"We'll ensure it [recovery of NPLs]. To do so, we'll amend the laws concerned," he stated.
Mr Kamal said the written-off loans, since the inception of the country, would also be rechecked.
A committee will be formed to locate the people who helped accumulation of classified and written-off loans, he added.
"We'll try to recover the money and I believe we'll be successful...," a confident finance minister said.
Replying to a query, he dismissed the possibility of the formation of a banking commission immediately.
"The bank commission was supposed to be formed to identify problems in this sector. We've already identified it," he observed.
"Let's try to resolve the problems first. If we get success, we won't need to form the commission."
Earlier on the day, the minister held in another meeting with the officials of the economic relations division.
There, he said, Bangladesh has never defaulted on external debt servicing.
The country's external debt-GDP ratio is only 13.2 per cent while its risk-free limit is 40 per cent, he added.
Mr Kamal urged the officials to work persistently to keep the external debt repayment capability intact.
He also asked them to uphold the country's interest while negotiating with global lenders.
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