The state-owned Sonali Bank has urged the government to help realise the outstanding loans of more than Tk 257 crore owed by ministries and their affiliated bodies, officials said. The Sonali in a recent letter informed the ministry of finance that two paper mills, two textile mills, and the ministries of agriculture, shipping and food had long been failing to clear the outstanding loans.
North Bengal Paper Mills Limited and Khulna Newsprint Mills Limited under the ministry of industries owed Tk 80 crore to Sonali which became classified.
Amin Textile Mills and Bangladesh Textile Mills Limited under the ministry of textiles took loan worth Tk 15 crore which had remained unpaid.
The ministry of food owed the highest Tk 140 crore while ministries of agriculture and shipping owed Tk 1.5 crore and 17 crore respectively.
Finance ministry officials said the Sonali was showing the classified loan of the government bodies as an excuse to get recapitalisation fund from the budgetary allocations of more than Tk 5,000 crore in the current budget.
The state-owned commercial banks including Sonali received Tk 4,100 core as recapitalising fund last December after they faced severe shortage of liquidity due to loan scams.
Sonali failed to realise a single penny during the last couple of years out of the loan scam worth Tk 3,500 crore by little-known Hallmark in 2012.
Sonali was recapitalized by Tk 1,995 crore, Rupali Tk 210 crore, and Agrani and Janata Tk 1,081 crore and Tk 814 crore respectively.
Former Bangladesh Bank governor Saleh Uddin Ahmed said the state-owned banks were facing capital shortfall due to unprecedented loan scams.
‘Loan disbursement on political considerations and lack of monitoring by the authorities concerned are mainly blamed for the situation,’ he said.
BASIC Bank, another state-owned banks, is now facing shortfall of capital due to loan scam worth more than Tk 3,000 crore. A BB report said board of directors, appointed on political consideration, could not avoid the responsibility of loan scams.
Former caretaker government adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said the law should be changed to stop political interference in bank operations.
He said the masterminds behind the Hallmark Group scam and the Sonali Bank officials involved in it should be brought to justice.
-With New Age input
