Senior officials of JB flout rules Large scale irregularities in sanctioning bank loans alleged
Staff Correspondent
The allegations of sanctioning huge amount of loan to particular business groups by different banks violating banking rules reflected high-level irregularities, favour distribution and corruption.
Many in the banking sector are raising questions how hundreds of crores of Taka are being given to few privileged persons breaking banking regulations when many established business and manufacturing houses are now suffering as they are denied loans and running capital despite they fulfil the bank requirements for loan.
One such highly favoured business house is the City Group that received loans from different banks. The group got Taka 1727.52 crores from different leanks of which Janata Bank alone sanctioned 975.53 crores Taka. Meghna Group also received over Taka 150 crores from Janata Bank.
When Janata Bank sanctioned fresh loans to the City Group many posed questions how the group got loan when its outstanding loan to Janata Bank amounted to Taka 210.21 crores. Accoding to Bangladesh Bank's circular on April 9 Janata Bank can not sanction more than Taka 13 crores as loan to any group.
But two senior officials of Janata Bank have taken extra initiatives to sanction the huge amount to City Group. Besides Janata Bank, the City Group's oustanding loan to different banks till June last amounted to over Taka 744 crores. This group took huge loan from Uttara Bank, Chartered Bank, City Bank, HSBC Bank, Eastern Bank, Mercantile Bank, Mutual Trust Bank, Dutch-Bangla and Premium Bank.
Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman has expressed his dissatisfaction over the allegations of irregularities regarding sanctioning of huge loan by Janata Bank and other government controlled banks.
Many in the banking sector press that a joint investigation should be made by the Finance Ministry and Bangladesh Bank to detect the irregularities by Janata Bank and other banks how huge loans are sanctioned to certain groups like City Group and Meghna violating the banking rules.
The Central Bank should also look into the allegations of harassmnet and dilly dallying in sanctioning loans to different business houses. |
