Move to realise Tk 20b outstanding debt from govt, autonomous bodies

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S M Jahangir
The finance division is looking to realise Tk 20 billion worth of outstanding debt from the government and autonomous bodies this fiscal, amid poor responses from the major defaulters.
"We have intensified efforts much more than that of last fiscal to realise outstanding debts this fiscal. Hopefully, the amount could reach Tk 20 billion by the end of June 2010," a senior official told the FE.
During the fiscal year (FY) 2008-09, the authorities were able to realise as much as Tk 10 billion from a number of debt defaulters, official sources said.
"The amount of realised debt was negligible in comparison with the total debts owed to the government by the state agencies and autonomous organisations," said the official.
Citing the figures compiled by the finance division's Debt Service Liability (DSL) wing, officials said a total of 56 government, semi-government and local government bodies were liable to service their debts amounting to Tk 544.68 billion until June 30 last.
Taking the poor recovery performance into account, the DSL wing recently reminded the agencies concerned to service their outstanding debts accordingly to help meet the government's current expenditures, the officials said.
To streamline the debt settlement process, the authorities had already sat with all the big defaulters both individually and separately, a senior official of the finance division said.
"You (the defaulter agencies) are advised to comply with the government's DSL payment provision for the sake of helping beef up the government's resources that it requires for funding its current expenditures," the wing told all the agencies concerned.
The wing's reminder came in the face of poor debt payment performance of the relevant agencies, official sources said.
According to the officials, non-payment of such a huge amount of arrear official debts, especially by big defaulters, has put the government in a difficult satiation to cope with its current expenditures.
Referring to the official figures, officials said the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) topped the list of debt defaulters, followed by the Petrobangla and the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC).
The outstanding debt liability of BPDB has already reached Tk 295.18 billion while that of the Petrobangla and the BCIC hit Tk 76.38 billion and Tk 57.77 billion respectively as on June 30, 2009, the official figures showed.
Among other DSL defaulters, the Rural Electrification Board (REB) is liable to pay Tk 13.18 billion, Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation Tk 14.50 billion, Dhaka WASA Tk 10.59 billion and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) Tk 11.70 billion.
The figures also revealed that the concerned agencies had so far paid around Tk 73.28 billion, which was nearly 13 per cent of their outstanding debts.