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BASIC goes aggressive to recover loans

Rejaul Karim Byron
The new management of BASIC Bank has made an aggressive move to realise classified loans horn top 100 defaulters who account for 86 percent of the total bad loans of the troubled bank.
Around 81 percent of the loans taken by these defaulters were given through Gulshan, Shantinagar and Dilkusha branches, which were dubbed as the most corrupt ones during the previous management
The BASIC Bank board led by new chairman Alauddin A Majid has identified the errant borrowers and sought suggestions from the finance ministry on what action can be taken against them.
As on July 31, these defaulters owed Tk 3,946 crore to the bank, with its total classified loans being Tk 4,560 crore and outstanding loansTk 11,237 crore.
BASIC has also prepared an action plan to recover the loans and sent it to the ministry.
BASIC Bank Director Mojib Uddin Ahmed said they would send to the law enforcing agencies and the AntiCorruption Commission the list of the borrowers who cannot be traced.
The bank will find out the beneficiaries of the untraceable borrowers and take legal action, he said.
"Both pressure and negotiations will be used to recover the loans," he said, adding that the bank officials who were involved in granting the loans have been
assigned to recoverthose.
"These officials have been asked to remain in contact with the borrowers," Ahmed said.
The bank has already contacted 77 defaulters who owe itTk 1,844 crore.
Officials of the bank also sat with 52 classified borrowers having Tk 1,344 crore in bad loans with the bank. Such borrowers include Atlas Food and Beverage, Prime Jute Industries, Prime Plus Diversified Jute Industries, Belayet Navigation, Ocean and Design, and Profusion Textiles.
BASIC officials said many of the borrowers have expressed interest to regularise the loans, and if they do not do so, the bank will file cases against them.
"The bank is now trying to recover the loans through negotiations; if that fails we will go to court," an official said, asking not to be named.
He, however, said filing cases would delay the loan recovery process.
The bank has also set a cash recovery target of Tk 630 crore by December and most of the amount would come from the top defaulters, according to its action plan.
But some officials have doubts how much of the target can be met.
A Bangladesh Bank investigation had found that the borrowers who were involved in irregularities are on the list of the top defaulters.
Delta Systems Ltd, which tops the list with Tk 123 crore, took loans from the Gulshan branch.
The BB inspection found huge irregular-
ities in disbursing the loans, though the bank was provided with a guideline on how to classify its loans, a central bank probe report said.
But the then management did not pay heed to the guideline and continued issuing fresh loans, it said.
Even the Gulshan branch itself raised objection to giving such loans, but the board approved those.
Not only Delta Systems Ltd, the central bank inspection found serious irregularities in granting loans to other top defaulters.
Meanwhile, the process of taking punitive action against the officials involved in irregularities is underway.
The bank has already taken an initiative to get all loans worth Tk 1 crore and above examined by two separate audit firms. The officials involved in approving these loans will be identified and legal and administrative action will be taken against them.
As part of the action plan, the bank has already started deducting Tk 30,000 and Tk 20,000 from the monthly salaries of all deputy managing directors and general managers respectively from August which would reduce its expenditure by Tk 3.30 lakh per month.
“The bank can restore its reputation given the way we are advancing," said Ahmed, the BASIC Bank director.