Bangladesh Bank to sit with banks to recover deposits of different ministries

The council of advisers, in its meeting on Thursday, asked the finance ministry to take steps to recover the deposits of various ministries kept with different banks.

The finance ministry has been asked to request the Bangladesh Bank to sit with the relevant banks to recover the deposits, Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan told the press during a briefing on the council meeting.

“Different government ministries and departments keep deposit with various banks. In my ministry, the Climate Fund has TK 3951 crore (Tk 39.51 billion). Of this, a certain amount was kept as an FDR with the Farmers Bank, renamed as Padma Bank. We are owed TK 873 crore (Tk 8.73 billion) with interest from this bank, but they are not returning the money despite repeated requests,” Ms Rizwana said.

When she raised the issue in the meeting, the council decided to recover the deposits of different ministries, as some other advisers stated that deposits from their ministries were also stuck in banks, the adviser stated.

Responding to a question, she said that former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina must face trial as the mass killings and atrocities during the July Revolution were carried by the government headed by her.

Due legal process would be maintained for her extradition and trial, she added.

Adviser Asif Mahmud told the briefing that the government was taking due measures to address the problems of labour unrest and a committee had been formed to monitor the situation and to resolve the workers’ issues.

The finance adviser even took the initiative to arrange a TK 790 million loan for a top RMG owner so that they could pay the salaries of the workers of his factories, he mentioned.

Responding to a question, he said that countries benefiting from the unrest might have links with the current unrest.

Orders have been slashed by 15 to 20 per cent due to the recent turmoil, and some countries are lobbying to take these orders, he said.

He also mentioned that a platform dubbed the ‘Bekar Sramik Shanggha’ led the unrest in some areas and vandalised some factories.

When one of the organisers of the platform was arrested, it was found that he is a leader of the Awami League, Mr Asif said.

Replying to another question, Ms Rizwana said that the load shedding situation will be improved by couple of weeks.

The government is prioritising the arrear payments to ease load shedding, she added.

She also said that the heads of the 6 reform commissions, announced by the chief adviser on Wednesday, will select the members of their respective committees in consultation with the council.

It may take a couple of weeks to fix the terms of reference for their commission, but they have already started the primary work, Ms Rizwana said.

She said that after finalising their reports, the government would hold a dialogue with the political parties to reach a consensus on these reforms, after which elections would be held.

Press Secretary to the Chief Adviser Shafiqul Alam moderated the briefing held at the foreign service academy in Dhaka city.

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