The High Court has halted the privilege of loan defaulters to secure further loans by giving a 2 per cent down payment until June 23. It issued a status-quo on the Bangladesh Bank notice that allowed defaulters to reschedule their bank loans and get further loan via this method. It observed that Bangladesh Bank (BB) gave an opportunity to big loan defaulters through the notice, which creates scope of Tk 1 lakh crore laundering. The court opined that on the other hand, the central bank is making the genuine businessmen pay 14 to 15 per cent interest, which is a discrimination. It observed the central bank is yet to execute the prime minister’s instruction to lower down the interest rate to single digit for bank loans.
We feel honestly that the issue of defaulting loans is being deliberately misinterpreted for protecting the real looters of money from the banks collusively with power politics and bankers. Looting of Bangladesh Bank does not worry anybody, especially in the government.
Genuine businessmen take loans from banks after keeping properties etc in mortgage as sufficient collateral for securing the loans in case of default. This is essential part of banking transactions in the world of business. Alternative is to make economic activity impossible.
But the clever thing is to implicate the usual bank defaulters in money laundering cases routinely to help the corrupt ones among the bankers and in the process loan realisation becomes impossible, and businesses are ruined.
It seems that finding the government unresponsive for free discussion and incompetent for solving problems some find no other way but to file writ petitions for finding remedy to all unsolved problems. In many instances the court is misled on facts and law.
There is a finding of the Appellate Division that on policy matters of the government the court will not interfere. The decision of the government to make it easier for the loan defaulters to start business overcoming the deadlock over repayment of the loan does not seem all that unreasonable.
The government has not written off the loan. Only some relief has been provided by lowering bank interests in the larger interest of the economy to be revived. The businesses of these defaulters were shut down and they themselves were locked up in jail making them unable to negotiate with the banks.
The question also remains to be asked why the banks did not go against selling of the mortgaged properties by way of realisation of the loan money first. The trick lies in involving in the money laundering cases. Any sensible finance minister would have seen trick and went to realising of public money first.
The bank looters have done the looting directly in conjunction with bankers. Most of them are not genuine businessmen and some of them avoided criminal case and one is a member of the parliament chosen by the government.
The main regulatory authorities for the financial sector are the Bangladesh Bank and the Finance Ministry and they should explain their failure or inaction to stop various irregularities and corruption in sanctioning loans before thing have gone too far. Ever after all the failures the main concern should be to find a realistic way to realise the money and enforce the civil liability. Loan takers are not criminals unless proved otherwise. They have been part of the banking business and they contributed to fat profits for the banks.
The crooks and looters of money from the financial institutions and opening up new banks by the persons with no money of their own are part of a much widespread corruption and they have no stake to make the economy work. They are not in jail.
Whether the Supreme Court should consider it appropriate to interfere in policy matters of the government in this regard we are not sure as the precedents go. The fact remains that under the new policy the principal loan amounts have to be paid fully. The concessions made are in respect of interest on defaulting loans taking into consideration the reality of closures of businesses. We have knowledge that there are cases where business men have enough properties for repaying the loan under compulsion if they were not sent to jail. We find such actions thoughtless and harmful for business to stay in business.
In our view the first thing should be first and that should be the realisation of loan money. If there is any criminal liability like corruption and money laundering that could wait. There is no time limit for criminal cases. By involving the Anti-Corruption Commission it was made too happy to show their power of arresting and insisting on not grant bail to be out to divulge the inner corruption in the system.
All such conspiratorial and power game activities are not easy to fathom under the writ jurisdiction.
