Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Monday submitted a report to the High Court saying that the amount of total defaulted bank loans is Tk 2.2 lakh crore in the last 20 years.
Of the total, 1.1 lakh crore is eligible to be collected, Tk 80,000 crore is involved with court orders in connection with different cases and Tk 30,000 crore cannot be realized, the report said.
The money was taken by loan defaulters from different banks through 10,476 different accounts in the last 20 years.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Barrister M Moniruzzaman submitted the sealed reports to the HC bench of Justice F R M Nazmul Ahasan and Justice K M Kamrul Kader during hearing a writ petition.
The HC bench asked the BB lawyer to submit the report through affidavit. The HC bench also extended for next two months its May 21 order that issued a status quo on the BB circular allowing defaulter to reschedule their loans with a repayment period of up to 10 years and to get further loans.
Advocate Manzill Murshid appeared for the writ petitioner. On May 21, The HC halted the loan defaulters’ privilege to secure further loans by rescheduling their defaulted loans upon a down payment of just 2 percent of the total loan amount following a petition filed by a rights organization, Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) seeking a stay on the BB circular.
The same HC bench on May 16 ordered the BB to submit by June 23 a list of names and addresses of borrowers, who defaulted on loans of over Tk 1 crore each.
It also asked the BB Governor to submit to it a report by the same date with details on the money laundered to different countries and the steps taken to recover it.
The court said it would take necessary action against the BB if it fails to submit the list and the report to it.
Earlier on February 13, the HRPB moved the writ petition at the HC, which issued a rule asking the authorities to explain why their failure or inaction to stop various irregularities and corruption in sanctioning loans and offering waiver of interest payments against bank loans in the last 20 years should not be declared illegal.
Those made respondents to the rule are Secretaries to the Cabinet Division, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Finance Ministry, the Financial Institutions Division and the Law Ministry, the BB Governor, and the Chairmen of the National Board of Revenue and the Anti-Corruption Commission.
Advocate Manzill Murshid said, “We brought the matter to the attention of the HC on May 16 after knowing through media reports and prayed to the court to stay the notice. Then the court asked the lawyer of the Bangladesh Bank if the notice was issued. They replied to the court that they didn’t publish any notice like that.”
“That day the court ordered Bangladesh Bank authorities to submit a list of borrowers with more than Tk 1 crore in default loans by June 24. But the central bank uploaded the notice on their website in the afternoon on May 16. We filed a petition on Sunday challenging the notice,” said the lawyer.
