& 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

Rupali Bank management in dark about govt's future plan

Sajjadur Rahman
Rupali Bank management is in the dark about government’s future plan on the bank following the scrapping of a deal with a Saudi Prince last month, said a senior official of the bank.
"Even we are yet to receive any formal letter from the government on the cancellation of the sale deal,” the official told The Daily Star, adding: "what we are informed is the withdrawal of the embargo on the bank activities."
Meanwhile, a visiting senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official yesterday said the government is going ahead with some options in the Rupali Bank plan, but nothing is decided yet.
"The government needs to find out new strategy on the Rupali after the scrapping of the sale plan," Thomas R Rumbaugh, adviser, Asia and Pacific Department of IMF, said.
"We have discussed a number of possibilities on the bank,” added Rumbaugh who is leading a mission here to review the country’s present . economic situation.
Finance ministry sources said the government is mulling some plans on the bank's cor- poratisation and privatisation.
World Bank (WB) and IMF have long been pushing for the privatisation of all four state-owned banks. The other nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) -- Sonali, Janata and Agrani — were corporatised by the caretaker government late last year. The government decided to privatise the Rupali Bank in 2005 under a WB-funded modernisation project.
It handed over the RBL to the Privatisation Commission (PC) in that year to sell the bank. Accordingly, the PC arranged a series of high profile international road shows between March 12 and March 29 in 2006 to sell the bank's government-held shares spending about Tk 18 crore.
The commission showcased Rupali's assets at the road
shows in Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Karachi, London and Dubai.
Besides IMF, the WB endorsed the road show, terming it as essential and unavoidable.
Later, the PC in 2006 invited proposals from bidders and some seven bidders submitted proposals. Of them, Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Mohammad Bin Abdul rahman Al Saud won the bidding at his offered $330 million for 66.27 percent stakes. In February 2007, the government awarded the remaining 26 percent shares to the prince at $128 million. Private sector holds the rest about seven percent shares.
Earlier in 2008, the Saudi prince, who had agreed to buy the bank, slashed more than $270 million off the amount he was originally willing to pay for
the state-owned enterprise, claiming he had been misled about the size of the bad debts the bank has.
In a letter to Chief of Army Staff General Moeen U Ahmed, the prince said he is now willing to pay only $185 million instead of the $456 million he offered last year.
Later, the government in March this year cancelled the proposed sell-off deal with the Saudi prince for his nonresponsiveness to takeover the bank.
The total amount of Rupali assets as showed in December 2005 stood at $1.07 billion with over 493 branches across the country.
Rupali's current classified loan reached Tk 1,830 crore at the end of2007.
sajjad@thedailystar.net