Given the existing stress that our economy is currently undergoing, ranging from the aftershocks of the Covid-19 pandemic to Russia's ill-advised invasion of Ukraine, that willful loan defaulters continue to get away scot-free is now even more unacceptable than before.
According to official data, the volume of defaulted loans stood at Tk132,000 crore in Bangladesh Bank's quarterly financial statement. But there is reason to believe that that figure might actually be a fraction of the actual amount, one-third of if to be precise. According to various external sources, the volume of default loans stood at Tk411,000 crore as early as March 2023 -- more than half the size of the national budget for the current fiscal.
Such a figure should already be ringing alarm bells across our nation's financial system.
Tackling this issue, which has been plaguing our banking system for decades now, requires a concerted effort by the government as most defaulters are influential political figures who clearly lack any sort of scruples. But if the allegations of exact figures behind defaulted loans being intentionally shrouded are correct, and the actual figure stands North of Tk400,000 crore, then it stands to reason that the system itself might be compromised.
If our economy is expected to fulfill its potential, the government needs to end the culture of impunity which not only sees loan defaulters not facing punitive measures but often enough being rewarded with incredibly lax repayment policies instead.
Sheltering willful loan defaulters will keep holding our financial institutions and our economy back. It is high time that such victims of greed were brought to book.
