The central bank will seek information about loan defaulters from the banks so that the Election Commission can prevent them from contesting the 10th parliamentary polls.
December 2, the last day for aspiring candidates to submit nomination papers, was also set for the banks to provide the Bangladesh Bank with the defaulters’ information.
Earlier, the EC sent a letter to the Bangladesh Bank and the finance ministry’s Bank and Financial Institutions Division seeking information about loan defaulters.
The letter, signed by EC Secretary Muhammed Sadique, sent to the Credit Information Bureau of the central bank, requested for sending the list of defaulters to the returning officers, so that they could cancel the nominations of the defaulters.
A Bangladesh Bank official said the draft of the letter to be sent to the banks had already been finalised. The letter would be dispatched once the finance ministry gave a go ahead, he added.
The official also said the finance ministry would give instruction to the central bank for dispatching the letters once the recently announced polls schedule was published as a gazette.
According to the draft, banks were asked to provide the information of loan defaulters to the central bank up to the month of October. If any of the candidates updated their loan status later than that, the banks would be asked to provide that information directly to the commission. The banks would be fined if the banks failed to submit the information by December 2.
“The Bangladesh Bank will prepare the loan defaulters’ list according to the October statements. But many candidates may adjust their default loan in November. So, the banks will have to send the updated reports to the EC individually,” said a central bank senior executive.
A senior official of the central bank’s Credit Information Bureau told the Dhaka Tribune that Governor Atiur Rahman had recently instructed them to prepare the information.
He also said: “We are logistically ready to provide the information on loan defaulters.”
The amended Representation of the People Order stipulates an aspirant candidate to get bank clearance on default loans and outstanding utility bills.
