Stern action against wilful loan defaulters: PM

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday came down heavily on critics of the proposed national budget for financial year 2019-20 terming them ‘mentally sick.’

At a post-budget briefing at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre she warned that stern actions would be taken against wilful loan defaulters as part of reform imperative for the country’s banking sector.

She said that action would also be taken against the banks which were yet to bring down the interest rate at single digit in line with commitment the private bank owners made to the government in late 2018.

Flanked by former finance minister AMA Muhith, planning minister MA Mannan, the prime minister attended the traditional post-budget briefing as finance minister AHN Mustafa Kamal was sick. She also read out a part of the national budget in parliament on Thursday after Mustafa Kamal expressed inability to complete it.

Branding the critics of the proposed new budget as ‘mentally sick’, she said that there were some people who always found faults with everything.

She termed proposed budget public welfare-oriented.

She said that the scopes of legalising undisclosed money purchasing apartment and land paying tax at a reduced rate and investing in economic zones and hi-tech parks with 10 per cent tax were proposed to check capital flights.

Asked if the step would hurt honest taxpayers, she said that there was no reason for the honest taxpayers to be frustrated.

She noted that the scope was proposed so that ideal money piling up at the hand of some people could be brought into the real economy.

Replying to another question as to why high growth of defaulted loan standing at Tk 1,10,873.54 crore as of March 2019 from Tk 22,482 crore in 2009 could not checked, the prime minister said that loans taken by owners of newspapers and media should be looked into.

‘Answer to the very question will come out once you get the detail information from the banks about the loans taken by the newspaper owners,’ she said.

She also blamed calculation of bank loans at compound interest rate for the high growth of bad loan.

She also said that the defaulters would be given a chance to pay back the loans.

Hasina complained about the sound system as the question and answer session was interrupted against the backdrop of allegation of inaudible sound by herself on a number of occasions.

Earlier, she said that the new budget was proposed in line with the current five-year plan and sustainable development goals to be achieved by 2030.

She said that growth rate was projected at 8.2 per cent and the rate of inflation at 5.5 per cent in the proposed budget, eleventh in a row by the Awami League government and the first one of its third consecutive tenure after the December 2018 general election, marred by fraud and flaws.

The prime minister said that her government would create employment opportunity for three crore youths to eliminate unemployment by 2030 and was also working to transform the country into to a developed one by 2041.

The proposed budget with an outlay of Tk 5,23,190 crore and 27.78 per cent of it in deficit projected an overall income of Tk 3,77,810 crore that was said to be a stiff challenge for the National Board of Revenue giving the fact that it faced Tk 85,000 crore shortfall in the outgoing financial year.

The government would spend Tk 2,02,721 crore on development projects in FY20 although questions about its spending quality as well as the implementation of the overall budget criticised by economists and think tanks.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net