Business Desk :
Disparities have figured in the disbursement of stimulus packages meant for absorbing the economic shock triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, says a latest TIB study.
The disbursement rate of the stimulus packages for large industries and export-oriented industries is 73 to 100 per cent while it is 21 to 42 per cent for the agricultural sector, low-income farmers and small traders, small and medium enterprises etc, according to the study conducted by the TIB (Transparency International Bangladesh).
Small and medium enterprises and marginalised farmers are yet to avail much of the support from banks; the process of getting a loan is difficult for them. Moreover, some banks cannot disburse it, reads the study.
Some commercial banks are also showing not much interest in disbursing these packages, it adds.
The government announced Tk 1.11 trillion (111,141 crore) in 20 stimulus packages to overcome the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.
So far only around 26 per cent of total stimulus packages have been disbursed, the TIB study notes.
TIB conducted its first phase of the study to identify challenges of good governance in various activities undertaken by the government during the first three months of coronavirus infection; that phase of study was released on 15 June 2020.
The second phase of its report on “Governance Challenges in Tackling Coronavirus” released on Tuesday, covers data collected during 16 June-31 October 2020. This phase of the TIB study aims at monitoring the progress of various indicators of governance in the post-June 15 period.
The study also showed lack of implementation of two relevant laws – The Disaster Management Act, 2012 & The Communicable Disease (Prevention, Control and Elimination) Act, 2018 – during the pandemic crisis.
With this, authorities ended up making too many committees to tackle Covid-19.
Moreover, The Public Procurement Rules, 2008 (PPR, 2008) was violated in the public procurement of a foreign donor-funded project.
On 8 March 2020, Bangladesh reported its first Covid-19 case and now globally ranks 20th in terms of total cases. Although coronavirus transmission has currently decreased to some extent in the country, it still remains a big health hazard.
More than 188 countries/regions around the world have so far been infected by Covid-19, which was first reported in China in December 2019.
