Bangladesh Bank has announced a refinance scheme of Tk1bn for the country’s jute sector.
The fund will be released within the current year in which the loans will be provided at a single-digit interest rate, said Bangladesh Bank’s deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury.
He was addressing a press conference at the central bank headquarters in Dhaka on Wednesday.
The deputy governor said Bangladesh Bank has decided to launch the refinance scheme for the country’s reviving jute sector in response to a request from the three ministries including finance, jute and agriculture.
A committee headed by SK Sur Chowdhury has already been formed to administer the scheme. It will also set interest rate and other issues of the scheme.
The committee members include representatives from the three ministries. The member secretary is the executive director of the Bangladesh Bank governor secretariat SM Moniruzzaman.
The central bank will provide the refinance fund at the bank rate while the banks will disburse the loans and charge service fee.
The committee will fix the maximum range of service charge for the banks.
Bangladesh Bank will make agreements with those banks who are interested to take the fund.
The country’s jute sector now suffers funding crunch as high interest rates discourage the jute traders to borrow money from banks.
