Bangladesh Bank on Thursday asked banks to disburse all stimulus funds announced by the government by August of this year.
Banks have been asked to complete the disbursement process of Tk30,000 crore for Covid-19 affected industries and services sector, and Tk20,000 crore for the Cottage, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (CMSME) sector between July and August this year.
The central bank gave the instruction in a virtual meeting with the chief executives of banks. Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir presided over the meeting.
On Thursday night, Bangladesh Bank (BB) also issued a letter to the chief executives of all banks regarding the meeting decision, a high-level official of the central bank said.
Bank representatives at the meeting said they have taken all kinds of initiatives along BB guidelines to implement the lion’s share of the packages by July of this year, according to a meeting source.
The central bank also assured cooperation to implement the stimulus packages, the meeting source said.
Earlier, the government announced stimulus packages over Tk1,00,000 crore to overcome the economic impact of coronavirus. Tk30,000 crore of that was earmarked for the Covid-19 affected industries and services sector, and Tk20,000 crore for Cottage, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (CMSMEs).
In initial disbursement of these funds, the central bank set up two refinancing programs: Tk15,000 crore for industries, and Tk10,000 crore for the CMSME sector.
Pubali Bank Managing Director Md Abdul Halim Chowdhury in speaking with Dhaka Tribune said: “Now, Pubali Bank is receiving a huge number of applications from borrowers seeking working capital loans from the stimulus packages.”
“We are disbursing the stimulus funds in time as per central bank instructions,” he added.
