Cenbank to look into possibility of extending loan classification period: Governor

The Bangladesh Bank will look into the possibility of extending the loan classification period, which is three months at present, Governor Ahsan H Mansur said today (16 January).

He said this in response to a demand from Takseen Ahmed, president of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI), during a courtesy call with the chamber's board members in the central bank headquarters in Matijheel, reads a press statement.

Speaking at the meeting, Mansur also said the central bank will try to examine the present conditions with an aim to ease the process of opening up overseas business offices.

He also reiterated that he expects the inflation to come down to 7% by June-July of this year. "If the inflation falls down to around 7% in June-July this year, bank interest rates will fall further on the market basis."

Mansur said the central bank has taken a number of initiatives to control overall inflation and hoped that the positive impact will be reflected in the market soon.

"The banks have been directed to open LCs without any margin to keep the prices of goods stable during the upcoming Ramadan, especially during the import of essential goods," he added.

The governor also stated that there is "no crisis of dollar in the market at the moment and the price is quite stable, but the central bank will not determine the value of dollar rather, it will be determined based on the supply and demand of this currency".

"But we are very much cautious about the stability of dollar price in the market and our strong monitoring in the market will be continued," he added.

He, however, finally urged the businessmen to do business with utmost compliance as the central bank will be strict about the compliance issue.

Meanwhile, DCCI President Taskeen Ahmed said, "Considering the overall scenario, our economy is facing a lot of challenges and the recent decision to increase VAT and tax has made the situation even more challenging."

He said high bank interest rates are adding to the soaring cost of doing business.

The DCCI president called on the governor to keep the bank interest rates a little bit lower in the prevailing situation to help the private sector credit flow grow and boost private investment.

"A CMSME entrepreneur has to provide at least 31 documents to get the benefit from the Credit Guarantee Scheme, and for these reasons, small entrepreneurs sometimes are deprived or lose hope of getting credit facilities," said Takseen.