State-run Pragati Industries Limited has been forced to suspend assembling Pajero CR45 jeeps as Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, the Japanese manufacturers, is not accepting letters of credit issued through Sonali Bank for the import of vehicle components.
Pragati officials told New Age that Mitsubishi declined to accept the L/Cs issued through Sonali Bank due to financial scandals that tainted the state-owned bank over swindling of thousands of crores of taka by Hallmark Group.
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation of Japan and Pragati Industries Limited signed a five-year agreement on July 8, 2010 for the production and sale of Pajero CR 45 — a sports utility vehicle.
The company started selling the vehicle in August 2011 with a price of around Tk 71 lakh and sold more than 218 such jeeps mainly to different government agencies till February this year.
Pragati officials said that the Japanese company had not accepted the Sonali Bank LCs for the last few months forcing Pragati to suspend production of the vehicle.
‘Pragati usually does its banking through Sonali Bank, but Mitsubishi is not ready to accept the L/C of Sonali Bank due to recent financial scandal involving Sonali Bank and Hallmark Group,’ said an official.
Pragati managing director AKM Solaiman Huq confirmed that Mitsubishi has recently stopped supplying components for assembling CR45 due to this L/C problem.
Earlier, there was a provision to supply components in 90 days after getting the L/C acceptance but now Mitsubishi provides components in 150 days and it was another reason for the delay, he added.
A Sonali Bank official said that Mitsubishi Motors’ bank in Japan initially did not accept the L/C of Sonali Bank Chittagong branch.
He also said that later the L/C was issued through Sonali Bank London branch which the Mitsubishi also refused to accept.
However, Mitsubishi’s bank in Japan demanded the L/C guarantee through any foreign bank. So, Sonali Bank managed a Malaysian bank which agreed to give the guarantee.
A Pragati official on Wednesday that the assembling of the vehicle might resume as Mitshubishi accepted the latest Sonali L/Cs with the guarantee of the Malaysian bank.
Earlier in January 2012, Mitsubishi had completely closed down providing Pragati with components for assembling Pajero V31 model which the company itself stopped producing due to poor demand for the model around the world.
A Pragati official, however, said that there was a good demand for V31 model in Bangladesh. So, for some time Mitsubishi provided a few components of V31 model to Pragati for assembling and marketing locally. But now Mitsubishi has discontinued supply of completely knocked down components for Pajero V31, he added.
Pragati had been importing CKD components for different Pajera models from Mitsubishi since 1995 under a long-term supply agreement.
-With New Age input
