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IMF to impose more conditions for loans

Rejaul Karim Byron
The International Monetary Fund is set to tag two new conditions for the release of the fifth instalment of its $1 billion extended credit facility.
One of the conditions stipulates that an international audit be conducted in three state enterprises - Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) -- while the other states that recapitalisation of the state banks must be linked to performance and done in phases.
The IMF mission that visited Dhaka between September 22 and October 6 decided to impose the conditions and would formally inform the government complete with a plan of action over the next couple of weeks, a finance ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
"In every budget a huge amount is given as subsidy to the state-owned enterprises and the IMF feels a huge amount of it is wasted," the official said.
Of the Tk 37,399 crore counted as subsidy in the revised budget for fiscal 2012-13, a major chunk was for petroleum products, fertilisers and electricity.
Although the government has already conducted a special audit in the three enterprises, the multilateral lender is sceptical that it gave out the true picture.
"Therefore, the IMF has proposed an audit by a reputed international accountancy firm," he said, adding that the government has primarily agreed to the audit of the BPC. The audits of BCIC and BPDB would be conducted at a later date.
As for the state banks, the IMF is disbelieving that the four banks' total classified loans come to between Tk 10,000 crore and Tk 17,200 crore. Bangladesh Bank statistics show the shortfall to be around Tk 10,000 crore, while the World Bank deduces it to be around Tk 17,200 crore.
"The IMF mission reviewed the financial indicators of the banks individually and estimated the shortfall to be even higher than the WB figure," the finance ministry official said.
To overcome the massive shortfall owing to various irregularities, the government has already set aside Tk 5,000 crore in the current budget to recapitalise four state banks.
The IMF mission stipulated that the amount be given in 2-3 instalments and not in one go, and that too after satis-factory performance in BB's quarterly reviews.
"Their line of reasoning being that the budgetary fund comes from public tax money and the government's ongoing practice of doling out people's money to state banks, who, in turn, squander the amount, cannot continue," the official added.