On the eve of the six-day Eid vacation, commercial banks yesterday went through mountainous transactions forcing many of them to open additional counters to cope with the huge pressure of clients.

Cash drawing from banks was two to three times higher than normal that pushed up the inter-bank call money rate to 15 to 16 percent. The rate was ranged between five and seven percent the previous day.

People were seen standing in long queues in front of bank counters to withdraw’ cash, mostly for Eid spending. Some of them had to wait up to one to two hours to get the money.

Bank managers said people were just drawing, very little depositing was there. Though the six-day vacation begins today, Bangladesh Bank (BB) yesterday instructed state-run Sonali and Janata banks to keep open their branches at certain commercially vital places except on Eid Day and the day after. The branches of the two nationalised commercial banks are those at the customs houses in Dhaka and Chittagong, inland container depot at Kamalapur in the capital, Benapole land port and export processing zones.

The central bank however dismissed the businessmen’s demand for transactions at commercial banks on Saturday, as the banks would not have the number of security personnel needed on the eve of the Eid.

Moreover, the central bank pointed out. if commercial banks are kept open on Saturday, the BB also have to open and run its clearance house, which would not be viable In viewof the small volume of transactions expected during the Eid holidays.

But business community, especially the exporters and importers, argued their inability to open letters of credit (L/Cs) during (he long six days would affect international trade. Besides, they said, shopowners would also be unable to deposit to banks the huge cash they would gather from the Eid sales boom, posing a security concern.

(Details on page 6)