Defaulted loans amount to Tk 154.51b

Beximco Group cos top list of bank loan defaulters, JS told
Companies of the Beximco Group top the list of 2,196 bank loan defaulters, according to the latest report of the credit information bureau of Bangladesh Bank.
Answering lawmakers’ questions in the parliament on Sunday, finance minister AMA Muhith disclosed that a total of 2,196 persons or companies, which had borrowed a minimum Tk 10 million each from banks, defaulted on their loans totalling Tk 154.51 billion till March 2009.
According to the list placed in the parliament, Beximco Textiles defaulted on Tk 3,538.9 million followed by Padma Textile’s Tk 2,929.1 million.  The group’s other companies – Shinepukur Holdings, Beximco Knitting, Beximco Denims and Beximco Engineering defaulted on Tk 1,343.5 million, Tk 810.6 million, Tk 387.7 million and Tk 598.0 million respectively.
The Awami League-led government, which assumed office in January, had been able to recover defaulted loan amounting to only Tk 5,914.4 million till March 31. He said that the central bank had launched a separate taskforce to recover the bad loans, the minister told Noor Afroz Ali of reserved seat-14.
The government is supervising the cases pending with the Artha Rin Adalat to recover the defaulted loans through the taskforce. Direct and indirect initiatives have also been taken to recover the loans.
According to the CIB list, placed in parliament by the minister, the state-run Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation owe Tk 2,929.1 million, Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation Tk 1,769.5 million and Adamjee Jute Mills Tk 1,247.5 million to different banks and financial institutions. Khulan Newsprint Mills Limited and Quomi Jute Mills have also defaulted on loans.
SDS International Ltd (Tk 1,399.5 million), Magura Paper Mills Ltd (Tk 1,260.5 million), Fair Expo Weaving Mills Limited (Tk 965.3 million), Riverside Leather and Footwear Limited (Tk 780.6 million), Arch Limited (Tk 778.0 million), Bangladesh Autorickshaw Chalak SF (Tk 775.6 million), Shamsul Al-Amin Cotton Mills Limited  (Tk 744.2 million), Desh Beverage Company Limited (Tk 611.7 million),  Samina Tannery (Ptv) Limited (Tk 609.9 million) and  Star Cement Industries Ltd (Tk 608.9 million) are among the leading defaulters.
To another question from Mahmud-us-Samad Chowdhury of Sylhet-3, Muhith said that the government was trying to sign a deal with the Egmont Group, the coordinating body of the international financial intelligence agencies, to bring back the money siphoned off overseas.
‘The process for obtaining information on money laundering will begin as soon as we sign the agreement,’ the minister said in his scripted answer.
The government is in close touch with different agencies and countries. It is also working on possible agreements to this effect, the minister said.
To a related question from Hafiz Uddin Ahmed of Thakurgaon-3, the minister said that he had no information whether any amount of smuggled money had been confiscated in foreign countries or any amount brought back to Bangladesh.

Courtesy of NewAgebd