BGMEA seeks loans rescheduling for another year

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has once again requested the Bangladesh Bank governor to reschedule their loans for another one year.

In a letter on Tuesday, BGMEA President Faruque Hassan urged the central bank not to classify their bank loans as many of their members have been affected adversely by the Covid-19 pandemic.

BGMEA acting president SM Mannan Kochi handed over the letter to Governor Fazle Kabir during a courtesy meeting at the latter's office. BGMEA former president Siddiqur Rahman, vice-presidents Syed Nazrul Islam, Shahidullah Azim, Khandoker Rafiqul Islam, Md Nasir Uddin and Rakibul Alam Chowdhury, and directors Asif Ashraf, Md Khosru Chowdhury, Rajiv Chowdhury and Mohammed Meraj-E-Mostafa (Kaisar) were present at the meeting.

After the meeting, SM Mannan Kochi told The Business Standard, "We have requested the central bank not to impose the condition of at least 30% value addition on woven garments to get cash incentive benefits. It will be very difficult to maintain for our woven exporters."

Shahidullah Azim said, "We have talked with the governor about issues that are very important to run our business during this pandemic, and the central bank has shown a positive response."

He said the RMG leaders requested extension of the repayment tenure of the salary stimulus loans to 36 months from the existing 18 months.

The repayment time was scheduled to start this month after the end of the 1.5-year moratorium.

Following the pandemic outbreak in Bangladesh, the government in 2020 extended the repayment of all loans for apparel makers until September this year.

Earlier, the BGMEA president also demanded rescheduling of all term loans till December if anyone fails to repay on time.

"If any factory of a group fails to repay loans, the central bank may give other units of that group the chance to continue business, otherwise all factories risk closure," Azim explained yesterday.

Azim said, "We have also requested the central bank to clear our cash incentives on the basis of buyers' payment, not repatriation of all payments. Apparel-makers will face big troubles because of such delay.