Staff Reporter :
Sonali Bank, the country’s largest public sector bank, has reportedly showing apathy in sanctioning industrial term loans for the last couple of years creating much dissatisfaction to the entrepreneurs, sources said.
They said, the authorities of the bank have taken a ‘go slow’ policy to disburse such loans following the Hall-Mark loan scandal resulting in sharp fall in its investment to the industrial sector.
Sonali Bank has disbursed Tk 150 crore industrial term-loans until March this year and it would reach Tk 163 crore by the end of June this year, a senior official of the bank told The New Nation on Saturday.
He said the authorities of the bank have taken a ‘conservative stance’ on approving such loans following the Hall-Mark scam.
“We have already received many loan proposals from the entrepreneurs which came under strict scrutiny of the concerned bank’s department,” he added.
The official further said that after completion of inquiry, the eligible loan applications would be placed before the approval of the bank’s board. “We hope the loan situation will improve drastically once these applications got the nod of the board,” he added.
In 2013, Sonali Bank had sanctioned Tk 315 crore term loan in favour of industrial entrepreneurs which came down to Tk 302 crore in the year 2014, according to an official figure.
The total loan portfolio of the bank stood at Tk 19,348 crore in 2014, and of which, industrial term loan was accounted for only 1.5 per cent of the bank’s total investment.
“The situation remain same in the current year as the authorities of the bank are yet come out from such a rigid stance,” an industrial entrepreneur told The New Nation on condition of anonymity. He said that he had applied for an industrial term-loan two months back at a branch of the bank. But he is yet to get approval for getting the loan from it.
“Such a stance of the bank is not only depriving us from getting the much needed fund but also creating uncertainty to expand my industrial unit,” he said, adding, it is the largest public bank of the country and we cannot expect such an anti-industrial attitude from it.”
Among the public sector’s bank, Janata took the lead in investment of industrial sector followed by Agrani and Rupali.
In the year 2014, Janata Bank’s investment in the sector stood at 36 per cent of its total loan portfolio. It was 30 per cent for Agrani Bank and 20 per cent for Rupali Bank.
In absolute term, Janata Bank sanctioned Tk 2,778 crore industrial term-loans, Agrani Tk 1,443 crore and Rupali Tk 1,167 crore in the previous year.
Janata has provided Tk 1,385 crore, Agrani Tk 360 crore and Rupali Tk 111 crore industrial loans in the first quarter (January-March) of the current calendar year.
