Recapitalisation
Tk 1,500cr released for Sonali, BASIC
The finance ministry has sanctioned Tk 1,500 crore as recapitalisation fund for state-owned banks–Sonali and BASIC—as the scam-hit public sector banks suffer from huge capital shortfall. The bank and financial institutions division of the finance ministry on Tuesday released the fund separately in favour of the banks concerned, attaching a set of conditions on the fund utilisation.Of the injected fresh fund, Tk 790 crore was given to Sonali Bank and Tk 710 crore to fix the capital shortfall of BASIC Bank, said office orders, issued by the division.
Both the state-owned banks’ combined capital shortfall was Tk 3,987.94 crore as of last September, due mainly to their inefficient and corrupt mode of loan sanction and disbursement that resulted in huge stockpile of defaulted loans.
As of September 2014, Sonali’s capital shortfall was Tk 1,730.30 crore, up from Tk 1,511.31 crore from June, this year. The shortfall of BASIC increased by nearly Tk 600 crore during the given period, suggesting a persistent deterioration in the financial portfolio of the bank, once considered as one of the best-performing public sector banks in the country.
The ministry order said the fund could not be utilised by the banks on the head of their revenue expenditure, as the fresh fund is meant only for recapitalisation.
The state-owned commercial banks including Sonali received Tk 4,100 core as recapitalisation fund last December after they faced severe shortage of liquidity due to loan scams. Sonali failed to realise a single penny during the last couple of years out of the swindled Tk 3,500 crore by little-known Hallmark Group in 2012.
Sonali was recapitalised by Tk 1,995 crore, Rupali Tk 210 crore, and Agrani and Janata Tk 1,081 crore and Tk 814 crore respectively last time.
‘Our effort to recapitalise the public sector banks is expected to improve their scandalous image,’ a finance ministry official said.
The current budget has an allocation of Tk 5,000 crore in the head of ‘bank re-capitalisation’.
-With New Age input
