The government gets nothing from the four state-owned commercial banks (SoCBs) though it has been pumping billions of taka almost every year into those in the name of recapitalisation.
The government has kept provisions for 'dividend and profit' in the national budget for the fiscal 2014-15 amounting to only Tk 30 million. An identical provision was also kept in the budget for the outgoing fiscal.
Sources said, since the SoCBs barring the partly-privatised Rupali Bank are incurring losses, they never pay any dividend/ profit.
The government has injected Tk 41 billion into the four state-owned banks in the 2013-14 fiscal as they faced capital shortfall, following a number of financial scams including the one involving the Hall-Mark.
Sources said the recent financial scams and inefficient management are the main factors to make the state-owned banks losing entities.
Many mentioned that a substantial amount of loans becoming non-performing is one of the key reasons for the poor financial performance of the SoCBs.
The government has estimated that it will receive Tk 30 million as dividend and profit in the upcoming fiscal from the four SoCBs, although it has planned to give Tk 50 billion more to the banks in the next fiscal year.
The government is expecting to get Tk 5.0 million from Sonali Bank Limited, with paid-up capital of Tk 1.125 billion, said the budget document, titled, the Consolidated Fund Receipts.
However, sources at Sonali Bank said it had incurred loss in the calendar year 2013.
It fetched an operating profit of Tk 2.87 billion. But the bank incurred losses after meeting the provisioning requirement.
A senior official at the bank told the FE Tuesday that it will not pay any dividend to the government for the year ending on December 31, 2013.
He said the budget document has just estimated the figures, but the reality is different.
"If we earn profit, we will announce dividend in our next annual general meeting."
He said the bank might emerge as a profitable one in the next fiscal and declare dividend.
The state-owned Janata Bank Limited and Agrani Bank Limited are expected to pay Tk 5.0 million each, the document said.
The government expects that Rupali Bank Limited, with paid-up capital of Tk 2.0 billion, would pay Tk 15 million, three times higher than any of the three SoCBs.
The government owns more than 90 per cent stake in Rupali Bank, and the remaining stake belongs to the general public.
Rupali Bank Chairman Dr. Ahmad Al-Kabir said the state-owned banks are not performing as expected, as they are beset with a number of problems.
"We've a significant amount of bad loans with a number of old companies," he said.
"Our officials and employees are not so efficient to cope with changes."
He also said Rupali Bank had no human resources department even five years back.
Portraying a pathetic scenario of the bank, he said its paid up capital remained almost the same during the last 40 years. But the capital is now increased to Tk 2.0 billion, Tk 750 million up than the previous one.
Rupali Bank declared 15 per cent stock dividend for its shareholders for the year ending on December 31, 2013, he added.
Dr. Zaid Bakht, a director of Sonali Bank, said the bank should have been a profitable one, considering its size and involvement in economic activities.
But the bank has remained so, as it has to face interferences from outside and it lacks good management as well.
Sonali Bank is not performing well in recent times following a number of 'reasons'.
He said: "We cannot make it a good and profitable bank overnight, as it inherits a number of problems."
The central bank cannot do anything in this regard, as Sonali is cent per cent government-owned bank, sources at the Bangladesh Bank said.
Dr. Zaid Bakht said if the bank's board performs well, disburses good loans and recovers the same efficiently it will be a good bank.
"We must improve our services, select good clients and recover loans timely," he also said.
Professor Md. Salim Uddin, a director at Rupali Bank, said the amount mentioned in the consolidated fund does not match with the reality.
"We've announced 15 per cent stock dividend for the year 2013. If we convert it into monetary terms, it will be equivalent to Tk 270 million, as the government owns more than 90 per cent of its stake."
The budget document showed that the government received Tk 15 million from Rupali Bank in the outgoing fiscal year as dividend and profit.
Comparing with the SoCBs, International Finance Investment and Commerce Bank Limited (IFIC) paid around Tk 170 million as dividend to the government in 2013 calendar year, as the government has more than 32 per cent stake in the bank.
