Several obstacles are hampering the possibility of sustainable growth of Bangladesh. Of these, the biggest hindrances are bankruptcy, tax evasion, money laundering and failure to bring interest rate to single digit. Besides, looting away money from development projects has also become a major obstacle to economic growth.
At present, almost Tk 80,000 crore is stuck due to dozens of writ petitions and cases filed by loan defaulters while filing cases against the government tax defaulters are not paying taxes worth Tk 30,000 crore.
Experts observed that people should be arrested if they do not want to repay the money taken from the bank.
They said that a section of unscrupulous businesspersons continue to launder money delaying repayment of loans and tax payment for an indefinite period of time. And they are sending huge amounts of dollars out of the country through hundi and other illegal means.
Experts said those businessmen are also laundering money out of the country in the name of import and export business opening fake companies. Remittances sent by migrant workers are also being brought into the country through illegal hundis, disrupting economic progress of the country.
Analysts have suggested curtailment of power to file writ and cases by the defaulters.
According to Bangladesh Bank, the total number of cases filed with Artho Rin Adalat across the country against different banks is around 60,000. The amount of bank loans stuck due to these cases is around 80,000 crore.
Of these, the number of cases against six state-owned commercial banks is about 20,000. The amount of money stuck due to the cases is about Tk 50,000 crore.
Specialised banks owe almost Tk 3,000crores against the 8,000 cases filed with Artho Rin Adalat.
Apart from cases in regular courts, 5,000 writ petitions on bank loans have been filed with the High Court, delaying repayment of Tk 52,775 crore. Through these writs, the applicants received stay order from the court.
As a result, banks are not receiving any money from these borrowers, nor can they refer them as bankrupt due to legal barriers.
Top bankers see writ petition as one of the biggest obstacles to defaulting on loan.
On the other hand, Tk 30,000 crore remains stuck due to a volume of cases filed against the National Board of Revenue (NBR) by tax defaulters. Experts blame the lawsuit as a major reason for the revenue shortfall.
A section of unscrupulous businessmen are not paying due tax. They are bagging hundreds of crores of taka selling back-to-back LCs.
They are laundering money through importing their own products. Using multiple mobile banking apps, illegal hundi trade is increasing at an alarming rate.
The government is not getting revenue due to these dishonest traders and due to these reasons, the economic growth of the country is being severely hampered.
Former Governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr Saleh Uddin Ahmed said, “One of the reasons for the increase of loan defaulters is filing writ petitions and litigation cases.”
He said, “The number of Artha Rin Adalat across the country is no adequate. This is also a reason behind the increasing number of defaulters.”
The noted economist observed that an unanimous decision should be made jointly by the central bank, finance ministry and Artha Rin Adalat paving way to arrest responsible persons if they do not want to repay the money taken from the bank.
Former Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank Khondakar Ibrahim Khaled said, Unscrupulous businessmen always look for opportunities. Non-refundable, non-tax payer syndicates intentionally prevents such litigation. Thus, strict action should be taken by the authorities to prevent such infringement cases.”
“There will be no crisis in the banking sector if the banks can collect the loan money,” said the former chairman of NBR, Mohammad Abdul Majid.
“Frauds are always available. They sue banks for tax evasion. Due to these tax collections are being reduced. If we could collect all the taxes properly, the government's actions would have been more dynamic, he added.
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