Loan application time for cinema hall owners extended till 31 Dec 

The Bangladesh Bank has extended loan application deadline for the cinema hall owners up to 31 December 2024 after it received lukewarm response for credits from the special fund created for the movie theatre business.    

The Banking Regulation and Policy Department of the central bank issued a circular on Sunday, extending the loan application deadline. 

Bangladesh Bank has formed a fund for cinema hall owners. However, the loan application is not reading as expected. Therefore, the loan application period for cinema hall owners has been extended till 31 December 2024.

"Despite huge interest among the cinema hall owners for taking loans from the refinancing scheme meant for them, many customers were not able to submit loan applications on time due to lack of proper and clear understanding of the loan process," the circular reads. 

The scheduled banks were not able to submit a significant number of applications to the central bank within the stipulated timeframe in order to obtain the refinancing facilities by complying with the loan regulations.  

"Therefore, the deadline for submission of application to Bangladesh Bank has been extended till December 31, 2024 for getting the refinancing facility after disbursing loans at the customer level under the discussed scheme by the participating banks," the central bank said in its circular. 

On 15 February 2021, Bangladesh Bank issued a notification to form a refinancing scheme to provide long-term loans to movie hall owners at low interest rates. Cinema hall owners can take a maximum loan of Tk5 crore from the fund.  

This loan has to be repaid in 8 years including a grace period of one year. The interest rate of this loan is 5% in metropolitan area and 4.5% outside the metropolitan area.