Stock Scheme
Application deadline extended again for 3 months
The supervision committee on the Tk 900-crore government refinance scheme for the small-scale investors affected by the 2010-11 capital market crash on Monday extended the deadline again for receiving applications from merchant banks and brokerage houses.
This time the application deadline, which was to expire on June 30, has been extended by another three months.
The committee at a meeting also decided to suggest the ICB for filing application with the central bank to get Tk 300 crore as the second tranche from the refinance scheme, BSEC executive director Saifur Rahman told New Age after the meeting.
Saifur, also the convener of the committee, said, ‘Considering the gradual improvement in loan disbursement of the fund, we have decided to extend
the deadline for another three months to get loan applications from the merchant banks and brokers on behalf of the affected small investors.’
As per the latest report provided by the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh, loans worth Tk 239 crore have so far been disbursed among the investors and applications for Tk 111 crore loans are in progress for disbursement, he said.
Bangladesh Bank on August 26, 2013 released Tk 300 crore to the ICB as the first tranche of the refinance scheme.
More than 9 lakh affected investors are yet to file applications to the loan approval committee to get the loans from the government fund.
The supervision committee for the first time had set November 30 as deadline to receive applications from the merchant banks and brokerage houses in favour of affected small investors.
Since then, it has extended the deadline for four times due to slow response from the merchant banks and stockbrokers.
Merchant banks and brokerage houses have time and again demanded that the BSEC should take steps in obtaining a directive from the National Board of Revenue allowing the amount of loans waived for the affected small-scale investors as allowable expenses.
The stock market intermediaries also requested for waiver of some conditions out of the 18 conditions set by the government to apply for the loans.
As per a Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission report sent to the finance ministry in April 2013, only 7,413 small-scale investors out of the 9,53,849 affected by the 2010-11 stock market crash got interest waiver.
The loan benefit was announced as part of government-set compensation package for the investors who had investment below Tk 10 lakh during the market crash.
-With New Age input
