Parliament on Wednesday passed the Palli Sanchay Bank Bill – 2014 that aims at encouraging rural people to save their money for their future needs.
Though the bank is expected to be established like the Grameen Bank, the basic difference of the proposed bank is that no individual would be the member of the bank. Only the societies will be the members of the proposed bank.
Finance minister AMA Muhith moved the bill in the House, which was passed by voice vote.
According to the bill, the government’s share in the Bank will be 51 percent while the rest 49 percent will be owned by cooperative societies of the ‘One House One Farm’ project.
The bank’s authorised capital will be Tk 1,000 crore. It will have 10 crore shares of Tk 100 each. The paid-up capital of the bank will be Tk 200 crore.
The Tk 1,342 crore fund of the ‘One House One Farm’ project will be absorbed in the new bank intended to help alleviate rural poverty.
The government can raise the paid-up and authorised capitals through gazette notification while the credit holders will transfer their shares to credit holders of same range.
The proposed Palli Sanchay Bank will be governed under the Banking Companies Act and controlled by the central bank.
The head office of the Bank will be situated in Dhaka. After getting the approval from the Bangladesh Bank, the Palli Sanchay Bank would set up its regional offices and branches across the country.
There will be an 18-member Board of Directors and the chairman of the Bank will be from the board members selected by the government.
Of the total number, seven directors will be selected from the shareholders from the division level associations of the ‘One House, One Farm’ project, each represented by individuals.
Eleven directors will include a representative from the Finance Division, a member of Rural Development and Cooperatives Division, director general of Rural Board, the managing director of the Bank, two Upazila chairmen selected by government and four experts on rural economy and micro-financing.
The bill says the bank’s default borrowers will be served with a 15-day notice for repayment. The loans will be
recovered under the Public Demands Recovery Act 1913.
The borrowers of microcredit system would not need to submit any security to get loan. However, the borrowers who would like to get huge amount of loan will have to provide collateral.
-With New Age input
