Finance Minister AMA Muhith has asked the Banking and Financial Institutions Division to conduct a study on the state-owned banks and financial institutions to assess their financial health and identify the ones heavily rely on financial supports from the national exchequer.
His instruction followed a letter from Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation (BHBFC) on Wednesday, seeking Tk5bn for the fiscal 2013-14 to continue their lending programmes, said a senior official of the banking division Thursday. He said the division would conduct the survey.
Earlier, the finance minister had criticised the chairmen and managing directors of the state-owned banks due to poor management and wasting funds being provided by the government time to time.
The government, however, decided to inject Tk50bn into four state-owned commercial banks to make up for the significant capital shortfall.
As of June 30, the cumulative capital shortfall of Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali banks stood at around Tk90bn – an increase of 357% from December 31, 2012, according to Bangladesh Bank figures.
BHBFC has only supplied Tk700m to Tk800m from its own net fund, which it stated not to be enough for operations of the financial institution. So, they badly need the fund to continue with the operations.
“We have sought Tk5bn, which is not a big amount. However, we know the government will not be able to give that much,” BHBFC Chairman M Yeasin Ali told the Dhaka Tribune Thursday.
He said the government provided us with Tk3bn in the last fiscal year to help continue lending operations across the country. “Without the government fund, we would not be able to continue our function.”
