Special Correspondent :
The government has provided Tk 1,850 crore fresh equity to eight public banks to help meet their capital shortfall.
The equity has been made available for Sonali Bank, Janata Bank, Rupali Bank, Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB), Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB), Karmasangsthan Bank, Palli Sanchay Bank and Ansar-VDP Bank from the outgoing fiscal’s budget (2017-18) that allocated Tk 2,000 crore for the recapitalisation of state-owned banks.
Finance Division under the Ministry of Finance issued an order in this regard on Wednesday.
When contacted, Bank and Financial Institution Division’s (BFID) Senior Secretary Md. Eunusur Rahman confirmed the development saying budgetary funds have been provided to the public banks (both commercial and specialised) and financial institutions to meet their capital shortfall, raise paid-up capital, interest subsidy and financial assistance.
“They received the recapitalisation funds on condition of improving their performance,” he added.
As on December 2017, the aggregate capital shortfall of Sonali Bank stood at Tk 5,397 crore, Janata Tk 1,273, and Rupali Tk 1,250.As on December 2017, two staterun specialised banks such as Bangladesh Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank were facing capital shortfall of Tk 7,540 crore and Tk 800 crore respectively.
According to the Finance Division’s order, Sonali, Janata and Bangladesh Krishi Bank received Tk 400 crore each recapitalisation fund from the budget while Rupali got Tk 300 crore, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) Tk199.79 crore, Palli Sanchay Bank Tk 90 crore, Karmasangsthan Bank Tk 50 crore and Ansar-VDP Bank Tk 10 crore.
They got the fund to raise their paid-up capital.
Grameen Bank also received Tk 0.21 crore from the budgetary slice as part of the government’s equity investment (paid-up capital) in the bank.
The House Building Finance Corporation also got Tk 150 crore as fund assistance from the budgetary allocation. The assistance would be regarded as long-term interest bearing loan.
But the government this time spared the crisis-ridden BASIC Bank from gettng the budgetary fund, no matter it was running with massive capital shortfall.
The capital shortfall of the bank stood at Tk 2,500 crore as on December 2017.
BASIC Bank got an amount of Tk 3,390 crore recpitalisation fund from the government between the fiscal years (FYs) 2012-13 and 2016-17.
From fiscal 2005-06 to 2016-17, the staterun banks received Tk 10,272 crore in capital support, Finance minister AMA Muhith told parliament in February.
