Staff Reporter :
The banking sector is now facing lot of challenges. The increasing pressure on the reserves is due to wrong decisions in the banking sector. Besides, huge amount of money is being smuggled out of the country through various loopholes under the cover of trade.
Ex-Governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr Salehuddin Ahmed said this in a discussion on ‘How dangerous are the recent economic challenges’ organized by the private research institute Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) held in its Dhanmondi office on Sunday.
“A lot of money is being smuggled out of the country under the cover of trade. Bad loans are increasing rapidly due to the corruption and the weakness of Bangladesh Bank. In the span of a few years, bad loans stand over taka one lakh crore from taka 22,000 crore. Besides, breaking all records, special credit facilities have been given to big businessmen recently,” Dr Ahmed said.
The increasing pressure on the reserves continues due to wrong decisions in the banking sector, he said adding that dollars are capped like the interest rates on bank loans.
According to the ex-governor, “Such decision is wrong. There are so many imports in the country, but in reality is it happening? Where is its output? Money is being laundered in different ways. As a result, foreign exchange reserves are decreasing.”
The current major problem in Bangladesh is the foreign exchange market, banks and regulators, he said adding that there is no
existence of Local Government. “So collectively it is not possible to get out of the crisis very easily. Because the banking sector is well positioned in the national life, but the rescheduling of loans is increasing. Good governance is a major problem now. Decisions are being forced on Bangladesh Bank from outside like BAB, ABB and FBCCI in various matters,” Dr Ahmed said.
“The then Cabinet Secretary tried to force on me, but he failed to do it. So, it is needed to restore the discipline in any way in the financial sector. In the case of loan re-schedule, only the big borrowers will get the opportunity and the smaller ones will not-such dual policy can’t be. Only medium and small borrowers will be penalized, it will not. It went the other way. So small and medium range borrowers should be considered,” he continued.
A lot of money is being smuggled out of the country through various loopholes and it must be stopped, Dr Ahmed said adding that at the same time, the government should go into action to return the foreign money home.
