News Desk :
Sonali Bank Limited-the country’s largest state-owned commercial bank-has written off Tk 2,728 crore of its top 20 defaulters, including Hall-Mark, due to non-recovery.
Sources said the bank has set a target of recovering Tk272 crore, or 10% of the loan cancelled this year but the latest data says the bank could not achieve even 8% of the target even after eight months, reports UNB.
When contacted, Managing Director of Sonali Bank Md Ataur Rahman Prodhan told UNB that the loans have been written off as per rules.
“We’re trying to recover the loan…our teams are working in this regard. Writing off does not mean the loans won’t be repaid. It’s just keeping the loans in a separate balance sheet,” Ataur Rahman Prodhan said.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) introduced a loan writing-off system in 2002 and the rule was later amended in April 2019. As per the amended rule, a bank can write off its loan which is treated as a bad loan for three consecutive years. It was five years previously, says Sonali Bank.
According to the central bank, Sonali Bank has written off the highest amount of default loans of Tk6,995 crore among the public banks.
disbursed Tk 1000 crore more for export of readymade garments, frozen foods and leather goods during the October-December quarter of the current fiscal year (FY 2021-22).
The remaining incentive of Tk 200 crore would be paid for exports of jute and jute goods.
In the last fiscal year, the Finance Division had disbursed Tk 4,000 crore as cash incentive provided the beneficiaries of remittances.
