The classified loans of 38 state-owned enterprises (SoEs) to the four state-controlled commercial banks (SCBs) stood at Tk 2.94 billion until July this year, according to the latest compiled data of the central bank.

Until February this year, the classified loans of the SoEs amounted to Tk 3.0 billion, says the data.

Of the classified loans, an amount of Tk 2.41 billion was owed to Sonali Bank, Tk 37.90 million to Janata Bank, Tk 148.80 million to Agrani Bank and Tk 342.10 million to Rupali Bank.

The total amount of the outstanding loans of such SoEs to the SCBs until July, 2012 stood at Tk 338.62 billion, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) data indicated.

The central bank recently completed the update on the outstanding and classified loans of the SoEs with the banks and financial institutions coming under the operational domain of the concerned division of the ministry of finance (MoF).

The central bank has been giving regular instructions to the high-ups of the SCB to downsize their amount of default loans, a senior official of the BB told the FE.

"We are trying to help reduce the classified loans of the SoEs through various steps. The banks have been asked to consult the SoEs so that they can make timely repayments of loans," he said.

Statistics show that the Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation (BTMC) tops the list of defaulter-SoEs with Tk 2.60 billon as classified loans, out of its total amount of Tk 67.09 billion as outstanding loans to the four SCBs.

Almost the entire amount of loans of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) owed to the SCBs have become classified. The total amount of outstanding loans of BJMC until July, 2012 reached to Tk 1.73 billion while its default amount of loans stood at Tk 1.59 billion.

The default loans of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) amounted to Tk 900 million against its total outstanding amount of loans at Tk 34.46 billion.

The amount of classified loans of Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) stood at Tk 212.70 million against its total outstanding amount of loan portfolio at Tk 16.09 billion. The Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) had Tk 105.20 million as classified loans with the SCBs in July, 2012.

The break-up of the SCBs' credits that are lying as outstanding loans of the SoEs, according to the latest compiled data of the BB, was as follows: Sonali Bank -- Tk 176.21 billion, Janata Bank -- Tk 67.23 billion, Agrani Bank -- Tk 72.66 billion and Rupali Bank -- Tk 18.78 billion.

The officials in the MoF told the FE that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had set conditions not to ask the SCBs to sanction fresh loans in favour of the loss-making SoEs. The MoF is no longer going to request the SCBs for fresh loans to the SoEs, fearing a further rise of the amount of default loans, the sources said.

"The SoEs have to grow or downsize themselves. There will be a full-stop to the culture of spoon-feeding in the near future as the government cannot afford a huge amount of their losses amid a large amount of bank liabilities of the SoEs," said a senior MoF official.

News: The Financial Express/Bangladesh/03-Sep-12