& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Big loan defaulters slip thru' loopholes of law

Bankers allege at meeting with law ministry

STAR BUSINESS REPORT
Big defaulters slip through the net even after making amendments to the Money Loan Court Act 2003 which has earned some successes in bad loan recovery mainly from small defaulters, speakers observed at a meeting yesterday.
Bankers told the meeting that the amendments failed to bring desired results as the auction process of defaulters' mortgaged property is often stayed by court order and the cases are not settled within the time stipulated in the law.
They suggested inclusion of a clause in the existing law allowing the banks to publish defaulters' photographs in the auction notice in newspapers.
"Big defaulters often file writ petitions against the cases filed by the banks halting the loan recovery process," said a high official of Islami Bank at the
meeting organised by the Ministry of Law and Bangladesh Bank in Dhaka.
He said Islami Bank was able to settle 50 percent cases but all of them are dealing with small defaulters. On the other hand, he said, "We have Tk 105 crore bad loans pending with 20 big defaulters... and all of them have filed writ petitions."
The defaulters have so far filed more than 400 writ petitions challenging the auction notices issued by three nationalised commercial banks -- Sonali, Janata and Agrani, the meeting was told. Sonali Bank along faces some 200 petitions.
According to the Ministry of Law, a total of 13,157 cases were settled till July 2004 under the Money Loan Court Act, which came into effect on May 1 last year. The amount of the total recovered loan was Tk 996 crore since its enactment.
As on June 30 this year, the number of pending cases was 51,940 and the claimed amount was Tk 15,683 crore, reveal Bangladesh Bank (BB) statistics.
Speaking at the meeting, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed said the government has nothing to do with the writ petitions.
But the minister said he would urge the chief justice to form an exclusive bench for 'package hearing' of the pending writ petitions and request the attorney general to take necessary measures for quick settlement ofthe cases.
Moudud sought a written proposal from the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh, a body of bank chief executives, regarding the problems they are facing in implementing the amended Money Loan Court Act within 10 days.
"We will take initiatives after receiving their suggestions," he added.
The law minister consented to the suggestions of the bankers on publishing the defaulters' photographs in newspapers. "If the Bangladesh Bank governor agrees, we'll take initiative..We want to catch big defaulters."
As the bankers raised the issue of suggestions regarding publishing of auction notices in low circulated newspapers, the law minister assured them of looking into the matter.
Among others, M Aminuzzaman, managing director of National Credit and Commerce Bank Ltd, AHM Nazmul Quadir, deputy managing director of City Bank Ltd and Kazi Habibul Awal, additional law secretary, spoke at the meeting.
BB Governor Fakhruddin Ahmed, chief executive officers of different banks and high officials of law and finance ministries were present.