Bangladesh Bank has set a Tk 88,753-crore SME loan disbursement target for 2014 which is 19.63 per cent higher than the target set for the previous year, said officials of the central bank.
The BB had set annual SME loan disbursement target at Tk 74,187 crore for 2013 and Tk 59,012.78 crore for 2012. A BB official told New Age on Wednesday that majority number of the banks and non-bank financial institutions had increased their loan disbursement target in small and medium enterprise sector in 2014 as the central bank had declined the ratio of general provision for the SME loan.
The BB declined the general provision against loan and lease for the SMEs to 0.25 per cent from 1.0 per cent in April 2013.
The banks and the NBFIs have to keep 1 per cent to 2 per cent general provision for other loans.
The BB official said that the central bank had recently unearthed that some banks had shown their general loans as SME credit violating the rules and the regulation to take facility for lower provisioning system.
According to the BB data, the banks and the NBFIs disbursed 84 per cent SME loan in the first nine months of 2013 against their annual target of Tk 74,187 crore in 2013.
Another BB official said that the central bank had arranged a meeting on Wednesday with the SME credit department chiefs of all banks so that the banks would reschedule the SME defaulted loan accurately.
The BB relaxed SME loan classification and rescheduling policy on December 18, 2013 as such loans disbursed by scheduled banks would likely to be turned into defaulting condition due to the country’s existing political turmoil.
BB’s SME and Special Programmes Department general manager MD Masum Patwary told New Age that they had asked the banks to take measure in this connection so that the real businesspeople, hit hard by the political unrest, would get the facility.
The BB will take punitive measures in accordance with the Bank Company Act 1991 if any bank misuses the facility, he said.
The central bank will keep close monitoring on the banks so that they will operate the relaxed loan
rescheduling policy appropriately, he said.
Besides, the BB asked the banks to take initiative to strengthen their respective SME loan disbursement programme, Masum said.
-With New Age input
