New clients to get priority for stimulus funds: Bangladesh Bank

Bangladesh Bank today asked banks to give priority to new clients while giving out loans from the stimulus package dedicated to the large service and industrial units.

As of June this year, some 3,275 units of service and industrial sector managed loans from the stimulus package, whose tenure is three years.

The banking regulator introduced the stimulus package worth Tk 40,000 crore in April last year in order to protect the industrial sector from the business slowdown brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

The clients, who failed to manage any fund from the package last year, will have to be given priority from this year, according to a central bank notice.

As per the rules of the package, clients can take a maximum of 30 per cent of their working capital from the package.

The clients, who are yet to get the full amount stipulated by the central bank notice, will also get priority to manage loan from the package.

The central bank initially allocated Tk 30,000 crore for the package, but it later widened the fund to Tk 40,000 crore.

Of the fund, Tk 7,000 crore has been allocated for the units of industrial and service sector firms operating under the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority, the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and the Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority.

Apart from the firms located in the specialised zones, as much as 98 per cent of the fund has been disbursed as of June 20 this year.