Bangladesh Bank (BB) has started streamlining the disbursement of loans from stimulus packages and asked banks to give priority to the borrowers who did not take such low-cost loans in the first phase to overcome the economic fallout from the Covid-19 epidemic.
Banks have started disbursing loans from inventive packages in the second phase last week as per the guideline of the central bank, sources said.
“Fresh borrowers, especially those who did not take such low-cost credits earlier, will get priority in the second phase of disbursement of incentive packages by the government for revival of the Covid-19 that hit the economy severely," said a BB official.
However, the borrowers who have taken loans partially in the first phase will be able to take the remaining part of the loan from July 2021. In this case, disbursement of the remaining loan to these old borrowers will be determined based on the limit of their working capital as of December 31, 2019.
In the interest of proper implementation of the incentive packages, the central bank in a fresh instruction said that the business establishments which have already received the partial benefit of the low-interest loans from the incentive package in the first term till June 30, 2021, are entitled to receive loans from July 1, 2021.
Earlier, on July 26, the central bank directed banks to disburse funds in the second phase among the industrial and service sectors, saying that those who did not get the loans last year would also be given priority this time.
Bangladesh Bank has allocated Tk 33,000 crore in the current fiscal year (FY22) to provide working capital to the large industrial and service sectors affected by corona crisis. The interest rate of these loans is 9 per cent. The borrowers will pay four and a half per cent interest while the government will subsidize the remaining four and a half per cent.
Entities in the industry and services sector (excluding SMEs) that have been affected by the Covid-19 will get benefits from this package. Under this package, priority has been given to the most affected business entities in the case of lending. In addition, there are instructions to give importance to the issue so that a large number of affected organizations can avail of loan facilities from this package.
Besides, the government has allocated Tk 20,000 crore for the cottage, micro, small and medium industries. The interest rate of this loan is 9 per cent. The government will provide a 5 per cent subsidy, the rest will be given by the borrowers.
The disbursement of low-interest incentive loans began in April last year to keep the economic activities normal. The first phase of loan disbursement has already ended and under this, the banks have lent about Tk 50,000 crore as working capital to small and large entrepreneurs at low interest.
In April last year, the central bank launched an incentive package of Tk 30,000 crore for large services and industries. Of this, the central bank was supposed to provide a refinancing fund facility of Tk 15,000 crore.
However, the Tk 5,000 crore package for the export-oriented sector was disbursed quickly among the large industrial and service sectors. The size of the package for large industries was first increased to Tk 33,000 crore and later to Tk 40,000 crore.
In all, last year, the government took the initiative to lend more than Tk 1.35 lakh crore under 26 incentive packages to revive the economy affected by Corona.
