Chief Economics Correspondent
Dhaka, July 23 (bdnews24.com) – The Bangladesh Bank has set agricultural loan disbursement target for local and foreign banks at Tk 141.3 billion for 2012-13 fiscal, says the chief of the central bank.
Governor Atiur Rahman said on Monday the central bank would formally announce the new agriculture and rural credit policy and programmes for the current financial year, divulging the disbursement target, higher than that of the previous fiscal, at a meeting with the chief executives of the state-owned, specialised, private and foreign commercial banks on Tuesday.
He told bdnews24.com: "The agriculture sector has kept our economy in a comfortable position. We didn't need import any rice over the last one year. It has been possible due to the bumper production in the past few seasons. And the disbursement of farm loans has played a vital role in this."
"In this backdrop, a target of disbursing Tk 141.3 billion in agricultural loan has been set for further boosting crop production and rural economy," he added.
State-owned, specialised, private and foreign commercial banks had a target to disburse Tk 138 billion in the 2011-12 fiscal.
Of them, the target was Tk 85.1 billion for the state-owned commercial banks – Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali – and the two specialised banks, Bangladesh Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank.
In the current fiscal, the target of annual loan disbursement in agriculture sector has been set at Tk 83 billion for the state-owned commercial banks and specialised banks and Tk 58.3 billion for the private and foreign banks.
According to the Bangladesh Bank data, all banks collectively disbursed Tk 114.53 billion in farm loans in the first 11 months of the just-concluded financial year while disbursement was Tk 121.84 billion in its previous fiscal.
Atiur said agricultural credit disbursement had increased due to the strict monitoring by the central bank.
"Our economy is based on agriculture. The state-owned and specialised banks used to disburse farm loans in the past, but now the private banks are also disbursing farm loans simultaneously. The banks having no branches at rural level are disbursing farm loans through NGOs."
The central bank chief said an obligation had been imposed on the banks to ensure that they disbursed at least 2 percent of their total loans in the agriculture sector. "We're monitoring it strictly."
Apart from the state-owned banks, agricultural credit disbursement was made compulsory for the private and foreign banks three years back.
He said measures were also taken for opening bank accounts for farmers with an initial deposit of only Tk 10 each.
bdnews24.com/arh/skb/ssr/nir/2317h
No comments:
Post a Comment