Finance Minister AMA Muhith said Sunday the money to the tune of Tk 25 billion to Tk 30 billion lost from state-owned banks through forgeries might not be recovered anyway.
The state-owned banks (SoBs), especially the Sonali Bank, witnessed the worst ever forgeries. Both bankers and the board of directors were to blame for those, he said while speaking as chief guest at a function attended by the members of the business community and two other ministers.
The forgery had first come to the fore in 2010 but the bankers had given a wrong audit report during the period, he added.
Muhith said land-grabbing has become a culture for a section of powerful people in the country.
"Those people, who have power in Bangladesh, are becoming land grabbers," the minister said.
The Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka (MCCI) organised the meeting which was also attended by Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed and Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu as special guests.
Muhith expressed his deep anger over land-grabbing, when MCCI member Laila Kabir complained that a section of dishonest people in connivance with local political leaders were grabbing tea estates in different areas of the country.
About the energy and power crises, Mr Muhith said the country would not see any crisis in the next two years.
"As per the agreements we have signed, the power production will stand at 19,000 megawatts by that time," the minister said.
Although the government had a plan to phase out rental power plants within that period, it would take some more time than actually planned, he added.
About the high rate of interest Mr Muhith said the government does not control the rate of bank interest other than the intervention in the agriculture sector on a limited scale.
The government earlier had brought down the rate of interest on savings certificates that had not yielded any result in bringing down the rate of bank interest, he said.
The government again had increased the interest rate on savings certificates which had brought some good results in pushing up savings and the government had benefited from it in maintaining its deficit financing from the source, he added.
About relaxing the environment clearance in setting up new industries as sought by the businessmen, the minister said it "is a matter of naughty bureaucratic culture."
Commenting on the role of Board of Investment (BoI) in attracting investment, Mr Muhith said the BoI was not providing the one-stop service as it was supposed to do.
"We are examining how the BoI can provide one-stop service, including environment clearance,' he added.
About resolving problems in the tea sector, the minister said the government could consider providing long-term loans, if the tea sector people made a proposal to that end.
About the international business trend, the Finance Minister said the entire world was opting for free trade agreements and so, the country had to go for it.
Expressing optimism about export growth, Mr Muhith said export earnings from the textile sector could easily be doubled within the shortest possible time.
He promised that during the current tenure of the government five special economic zones would be built for new industries.
The Finance Minister said the government had conducted a survey on state-owned enterprises to estimate how much unused land could be retrieved from those factories so that some new factories could be established there.
About establishing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, Mr Muhith said the government had signed agreements with the Qatar government in 2010 and invited an international tender to build the terminal but it had got no response from any party.
He said the tender for constructing the LNG terminal was invited again and the aim of the government was to supply LNG to the Chittagong region on a priority basis.
Dwelling on his vision about energy, the minister said the outlook of the government was to go for coal as part of a long-term energy solution.
"The government will depend on imported coal first and on receipt of a consultancy report from international agencies it will take a decision on exploration of coal," he added.
About the current problem with coal exploration the finance minister said one of the major coal reserves was located in a very densely-populated area and another coal zone was located at a big underground water table.
"We are looking for some international consultancy reports about exploration of coal at the two of the sites," the minister said.
Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu said his ministry had sent letters to all deputy commissioners to provide information about government land where special economic zones could be established.
He said the ministry had also written to Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) to provide a list of unused land allocated for it.
About relocation of leather factories the minister said if there were any entrepreneurs not shifting their factories to Savar, their allocated plots would be cancelled.
About finding out government land the minister said the state-owned sugar mills were running for only three months a year.
"The ministry is planning to introduce a beat system so that many of the unused pieces of land of the sugar mills can be used," Mr Amu said.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said the government would sign free trade agreements with many countries very soon.
"We are working on signing FTAs with China, Korea, Australia and India," the minister said.
The focus of the government was to diversify its exports and the export destinations, he added.
Brazil, Chile, India, Japan, China and many other countries were offering duty-free and quota-free market access facilities to Bangladeshi products, he mentioned.
He said some people who were not involved in manufacturing readymade garments were complaining against Bangladesh to other countries.
The industries minister said the government was serious about constructing economic zones and Mirersharai was the first priority.
MCCI President Rokia Afzal Rahman presided over the meeting, also addressed by Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh (ICC,B) President Mahbubur Rahman, former caretaker government adviser and Apex Group Chairman Syed Manzur Elahi, former FBCCI president AK Azad, Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Mahbubul Alam, Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association President Md Amin Ullah, Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Rupali Chowdhury and Exporters Association of Bangladesh President Abdus Salam Murshedy.
Speaking on the occasion Rokia Afzal Rahman said the MCCI welcomed the idea of widening tax net instead of increasing the tax rate, as the government was considering lowering the corporate tax rate.
She said the frauds in state-owned banks had seriously hit the investor confidence and depleted the resources of once a strong bank.
"To restore health of the banking sector and capital market, the regulatory watchdogs should be empowered adequately and run professionally,' she observed.
She said the investment-GDP ratio had remained stagnant at about 24-25 per cent over the years due to administrative and infrastructure-related barriers.