Banks are not disbursing SME loans as expected: BB
Banks and NBFIs have been urged to submit disbursement statements twice a month instead of once a month
Banks and financial institutions have been asked to speed up loan disbursement to the cottage, micro, small and medium enterprise (CMSME) sector under the stimulus package as the central bank observed that current responses are not so satisfactory.
On Monday, the Bangladesh Bank issued a circular for the chief executives of the banks and non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), urging them to submit statements twice a month instead of once a month.
"From now on, banks and NBFIs have to submit loan disbursement statements to the SME and Special Programmes Department within five days after every fortnight. This means the first statement has to be submitted within the 20th day of current month, and the second one within the 5th day after the month ends," the circular read.
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Lila Rashid, executive director of the central bank, told The Business Standard, "Earlier, we wanted statements once a month. We have observed that the response is very insignificant. So, we feel the need to enhance monitoring to implement the package for reviving CMSME sector."
On April 13, the Bangladesh Bank issued a guideline, describing the prosses of implementation of the stimulus package of Tk20,000 crore.
From the package, the CMSME sector will get working capital loan at the rate of 9 percent interest, but the government will bear half of the interest as a subsidy. So, the real interest of the SME loans will stand at 4.5 percent.
To implement the package properly, the central bank formed a Tk10,000 crore refinance fund. 55 banks and NBFIs have already signed agreements with the Bangladesh Bank for disbursing loan from the refinance scheme.
