Assisting Jute Sector Businesses
BB to launch Tk 100cr refinance scheme
The Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday said it would introduce a refinance scheme of Tk 100 crore for giving financial assistance to the jute sector businesspeople in a bid to boost the country’s jute industry. ‘The businesspeople in the jute sector including owners of jute mills will get bank loans with a lower rate of interest under the refinance scheme,’ said BB deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury at a press briefing at the central bank’s headquarters in the capital.
He said banks would get the loans at a five per cent interest rate from the refinance scheme and the businesspeople would get the finance at a seven to eight per cent interest rate from the banks.
‘The businessmen in the jute sector have long been requesting for initiatives from the government so that they could get bank loans with a lower rate of interest. After getting instruction from the government, the BB is going to introduce the refinance fund,’ he said.
The jute sector businesspeople will get loans under the refinance fund by November next as the central bank will complete all official procedures of the refinance scheme in the quickest
possible time, he said.
The government has already formed a committee headed by SK Sur Chowdhury to implement the scheme. BB executive director SM Moniruzzaman will be its member secretary. Senior officials of finance, agriculture, and textile and jute ministries will be co-opted on to the committee.
The committee will set the terms and conditions of the refinance scheme after Eid-ul-Azha vacation when it will also set the rate of interest on loans for the businesspeople, Sur said.
After the process, the BB will sign participant agreements with the banks which will express interest to disburse loans under the scheme, he said.
The fund of the refinance scheme will be taken from the BB’s own fund, he said.
The central will also ask the banks to disburse the refinance fund on easy conditions, he added.
-With New Age input
