The Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Sunday extended the deadline for disbursing funds to the cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises (CMSMEs) from the Tk 20,000 crore stimulus package by three moremonths in the face of slow release of money by the lenders.
As of December 3, banks disbursed about Tk 8,600 crore among 52,000 CMSMEs, according to the central bank’s latest data. Another Tk 1,700 crore of loans have been authorised but are yet to be disbursed.
“Some banks and financial institutions have been able to disburse loans as per the set target, while some failed,” according to the central bank notice.
Their failure to get the funds to the CMSME sector is delaying the economic recovery from the pandemic-induced downturn.
Subsequently, the central bank has extended the deadline for banks from December 31 last year by three more months.
Earlier on July 2 last year, the central bank asked all banks to take effective measures for implementing the stimulus packages, including the CMSME sector, within August.
The banks were also asked to implement the lion’s share of the stimulus packages within July and the remaining portion by August.
But the deadline was extended to December 31 after most of the banks failed to disburse as per the given targets.
On April 13, the BB, in line with the government’s announcement, issued guidelines on providing working capital facility amounting to Tk 20,000 crore to the CMSME sector.
The interest rate for the fund would be 9 per cent, with the government bearing the 5 per cent as subsidy. The remaining 4 per cent will be borne by borrowers.