Bangladesh Bank has taken the initiative to arrange the rules of lending activities according to international standards. According to the new rules, the loan will go into the default account only after 3 months from the expiry of the scheduled period for paying the loan installments. Apart from this, the central bank has also issued instructions to reserve provision at a proportional rate and level of defaults according to the maturity period of the outstanding loans. In this case, the loan will fall into the 'poor' category after 3 to 6 months, 'doubtful' between 6 to 12 months and 'bad' after 12 months.
Bangladesh Bank has asked to reserve 1 percent for regular loans and maximum 100 percent provision against defaults in a notification published yesterday. The new directive will come into effect from April 1, 2025. However, no explanation has been given in the notification regarding the much-discussed issue of regularization of loans through one-time payment and rescheduling.
According to the notification, general provision of 1 per cent of the loan amount in case of standard loan and 5 per cent of the loan amount in case of special mansion account should be kept. Apart from this, in case of defaulted loans, 20 percent on the basis of provision for low quality, 50 percent on the basis of provision for doubtful and 100 percent on the basis of provision for bad or harmful should be reserved.
Talking to the concerned people, it is known that at the end of September, the amount of defaulted loans of the country's banks was 2 lakh 84 thousand 977 crore 31 lakh taka. The total amount of disbursed loans till September was Tk 16 lakh 82 thousand crore. Accordingly, the outstanding debt is 41.50 percent of the total debt.
Before this, the amount of money stuck in 67 thousand 519 cases pending in the money loan court till June was 2 lakh 9 thousand 691 crores. The amount pending in the writ case was 1 lakh 53 thousand crores. The outstanding debt as Special Mention is around 50 thousand crores. All together, the outstanding debt outside the declared defaulters is Tk 4 lakh 13 thousand crores. Apart from this, 4 thousand crores in certificate cases and several thousand crores of undisclosed defaults due to audit. Under the new rules, the default and unpaid loans are about 6 lakh 98 thousand crores.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Ahsan H. Mansoor said that drastic changes should be made to reduce defaulted loans. And the hindrances of the debt court will be removed. If necessary, no exemption will be given to defaulters.
Abdur Rauf ordered the issuance of a master circular on loan rescheduling to provide relief to major defaulters within a month and a half of assuming office as Talukdar Governor. According to him, the circular was issued on September 4, 2022. It allows a borrower to reschedule or restructure the loan four times by making a 2 percent down payment (one-time payment). And the repayment period is 21 years. That is, no bank could take legal action against the defaulters if 21 years had not passed.
