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Agricultural loans can be rescheduled for three years. The
Central Bank has given this special concession to speed up the production
process and prevent the increase in the price of products. However, the terms
of the Master Circular regarding debt rescheduling and restructuring will not
apply in this case. On Wednesday (September 21, 2022), the Banking Regulations
and Policy Department of Bangladesh Bank issued instructions in this
regard.
It states that despite the issuance of BRPD Circular
No-16/2022 (Master Circular on Debt Rescheduling and Restructuring), short-term
agricultural loans can be rescheduled as usual. At the same time, this
directive will remain in force till December 31, 2022. These instructions have
been issued under the powers conferred by Section 49(1)(Ch) of the Bank
Companies Act, 1991.
On April 19, the Central Bank issued instructions regarding
the rescheduling of short-term agricultural loans to facilitate the repayment
of loans to entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector and to maintain normal
credit flow.
According to the guidelines, short-term agricultural loans
can be rescheduled for a maximum period of three years with a grace period of
six months from the date of rescheduling by relaxing the down payment
conditions based on the banker-customer relationship. In some cases, such loans
can be rescheduled even without a down payment.
According to the circular, after the rescheduling of loans,
the borrowers of this sector can be given new loans without any new deposit.
During the course of the certificate case, the loan can be rescheduled by
suspending or settling the certificate case through an agreement with the
customer. The new facility will also be applicable in case of earlier
rescheduling of short-term agricultural loans.
In agriculture, the loan target for the financial year 2022-23 has been fixed at Tk 30 thousand 911 crores. Which is 8.88 percent more than last financial year. The agricultural loan target for the financial year 2021-22 was Tk 28 thousand 391 crores.
According to the central bank, the banks have disbursed more
than the target of loan disbursement in the last financial year, which is
101.56 percent.
According to Bangladesh Bank sources, banks have been
instructed to fix financing for the production and marketing of agriculture and
agricultural products to maintain food supply in the country in view of
post-Covid economic recovery and global recession. Bangladesh Bank has also
simplified the loan disbursement system at low interest. In the current
financial year, seven sectors have been added to the new policy, including
rules for duck rearing, and rules for the cultivation of chia seeds, twin fruit, and sugar
beet under the livestock sector.
In addition, the policy has added loan regulations for
Vietnamese hybrid coconut, coffee, and sweet corn farming, seaweed farming, and lobster farming under the fisheries sector, adding the method of distributing
agricultural loans by banks in order to give loans to more farmers easily, and
loan regulations for crop production per acre have been added.
Considering the demand for agricultural and rural loans,
state-owned commercial and specialized banks have set a target of Tk 11,758
crore and private and foreign commercial banks have set a target of Tk 19,153
crore for agricultural and rural loans in the current financial year.
In the financial year 2021-22, banks disbursed a total of Tk
28 thousand 834 crores of agricultural and rural loans. Out of this, 33 lakh 4
thousand 811 people got agricultural and rural loans. Through banks' own
network and MFI linkages, 17 lakh 97 thousand 52 women have received Tk 10
thousand 829 crore agricultural and rural loans. In addition, in the last
financial year, 24 lakh 99 thousand 945 small and marginal farmers received
loans of about Tk 20 thousand 182 crores from various banks and 4 thousand 73
farmers of backward areas like Char, Haor, etc. received loans of about Tk 19
crore 59 lakhs.
In July, the first month of the current financial year
2022-23, the banks gave Tk 1,664 crore to the agricultural and rural credit
sector. This is 5.39 percent of the target. Compared to the same period of the
previous financial year, the disbursement of loans has increased by Tk 722
crore. During the same period of the financial year 2021-22, the banks
disbursed Tk 942 crore to the agricultural and rural credit sector, which is
3.32 percent of the annual target of the banks.
Those concerned say that agriculture is one of the driving
forces of Bangladesh's economy. In view of the covid pandemic and the recent
global situation, the government is giving more importance to agricultural
production. Therefore, Bangladesh Bank is always trying to help the
agricultural sector through necessary financing. For this reason, the
agricultural loan amount has been increased in the new financial year.
|Source: Online/SZK
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