Banks asked to suspend loan recovery from flood-affected farmers
Bazaar
The Bangladesh Bank has instructed banks not to collect loan instalments from flood-affected farmers until the situation gets back to normal.
In a circular on Thursday, the financial regulator also asked lenders to give out fresh loans for crops, fisheries and livestock in flood-stricken districts.
The districts include: Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Gaibandha,Nilphamari, Rangpur, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Sirajganj, Bogura, Tangail, Jamalpur, Faridpur, Shariatpur, Rajbari, Madaripur, Manikganj, Munshiganj, Feni, Netrokona, Dhaka and Noagaon.
Banks will have to analyse the demand and real need of farm loans in those areas and disburse accordingly.
The central bank also instructed lenders not to file new certificate cases against farmers for being defaulters.
The Bangladesh Bank instructed banks to monitor the disbursement process intensively so that the flood-affected people do not face any harassment or suffering in availing loans.
Banks can also provide loans to people farming livestock at their yards, producing cattle feed and doing different income-generating activities, read the circular.
The instruction, which has taken immediate effect, asked all banks to report to the central bank by October 30 this year about their progress on this issue.
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