Tk7b loan to buy hides

Four state-owned commercial banks will give Tk7 billion in loans to facilitate the purchase of raw cattle hide coming from animals sacrificed during the Eid-ul-Azha. The Board of Directors of Sonali, Agrani, Janata and Rupali banks decided to increase the loan amount by roughly Tk2 billion over last year’s. The raw hides collected during Bangladesh’s second largest religious festival cater to much of the country’s internal annual leather demand. Rupali Bank Managing Director M Farid Uddin said the decision to raise the target had been prompted by the leather sector’s good repayment record. His bank is ready to hand out an additional Tk850 million this year over last year’s Tk500 million. He added the applicants would be closely scrutinised to keep out possible defaulters and said customers with good repayment records would get preference.
Sonali Bank, the largest of the four banks, has set itself a disbursement target this year of about Tk1.95 billion, officials said. Three new customers would get Tk730 million. The officials also said default loans in the sector amounted to around Tk1.22 billion.
Janata Bank has set a Tk2.5 billion target and had received till Tuesday loan applications for Tk2.3 billion. Agrani Bank’s target is Tk1.2 billion.
Other than these banks, state-owned Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank and BASIC Bank along with private National Bank and City Bank give credit to small leather traders.
The tanneries have decided to pay Tk 50-55 for a square feet of salted cow hide collected from Dhaka and Tk 40-45 for those outside Dhaka, according to bdnews24.com.
- biplab