The government is set to issue a sovereign guarantee against a Tk 30-billion loan expected to be provided by the Bangladesh Bank to the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) that has long been suffering from a fund crisis.
The fund would be invested into the ailing capital market, sources said.
The Ministry of Finance will act as the sovereign guarantor for the loan bearing an interest rate of 4.0 per cent, according to a senior official at the Financial Institutions Division (FID) of the ministry.
He said the ICB has been suffering from hefty losses due to various reasons. So, it sought the fund mainly to repay expensive bank loans and invest in the market as part of a plan to convert the loss-making agency into a profitable one.
Earlier, the ICB proposed the BB for the fund but the central bank advised it to apply for the loan with government guarantee subject to which the loan could be considered.
"We have received a letter from the FID and are working on issuing the state guarantee," an official of the finance division said.
When contacted, a senior official of ICB said, "We've already presented our action plan to the FID on how the loan will be used."
He said the finance adviser has already given his necessary instruction in this regard.
He also explained that more or less Tk 20 billion is expected to be used to repay the banks loans and the rest to support the share market.
On May 21 this year, the corporation sought a fund worth Tk 50 billion from the central bank so that it could help stabilise the equity market and repay loans it had taken at high rates of interest to support the market.
The ICB has long been passing through a tough time with a heavy burden of expensive loans received from different state-run and private commercial banks and other sources.
After the 2010 stock market debacle, the organisation collected funds at high interest rates and invested a substantial amount in the market to facilitate its stability.
The corporation's interest expense grew at a much faster pace every year between FY10 and FY23, compared to the growth of interest income.
As a result, the interest expenditure ballooned to nearly double the operating income by the end of FY23.
For example, the ICB paid Tk 8.14 billion in interest in FY23 against the funds that it had borrowed, while it earned only Tk 2.24 billion against the money lent.
The deficit between income and expenditure led to the corporation incurring a loss for the first time for Q1, FY24.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
