But borrows Tk 6,000cr from commercial banks
The government has borrowed around Tk 6,000 crore from commercial banks in the first two months but its net borrowing during the period posted a negative Tk 86.43 crore after it had repaid Tk 6,084.50 crore loan to Bangladesh Bank. BB officials said that the government repaid a significant amount of loans to BB after the central bank deposited its profit for the last financial year 2012-13 to the government.
A BB official told New Age on Sunday that the government had started this fiscal year with huge amount of borrowing from the banking sector, but it had recently repaid Tk 4,072 crore to the central bank.
The BB transferred the amount to the government from its annual balance shit as the central bank earned the figure as its operating profit, he said.
In total, the government repaid BB Tk 6,084.50 crore till September 5 from July 1 but the government borrowed Tk 5,998.07 crore from scheduled banks during the period.
He, however, said that the government borrowing from the banking sector would increase in the first half of this fiscal year, as the government would have to take large amount of loan in a bid to fulfill its election pledges ahead of the next national elections.
The government has set a target to take loan amounting to Tk 25,993 crore from the banking sector in FY14.
The BB data showed that the government had borrowed from the banking source Tk 24,776.43 crore in the FY13 against Tk 21,459.03 crore borrowed in the FY12.
The government’s borrowing from the scheduled banks stood at Tk 30,027.99 crore in the FY13, but the overall borrowing from the banking source stood at Tk 24,776.43 crore in the period as it repaid the central bank Tk 5,251.56 crore.
The BB data showed that the government’s outstanding bank borrowing, which had accumulated over the years, stood at Tk 1,12,566.01 crore as of September 5, 2014.
-With New Age input
