BKMEA seeks 3 more years to repay salary stimulus
The BKMEA also urged the central bank to increase export-development funds to $30 million
The Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) has requested the Bangladesh Bank to extend repayment period of salary stimulus loan, given to apparel factories to cushion pandemic fallout, to 42 months from the existing 18 months.
"We have paid six monthly instalments since mid-2021. Repaying the loan in the next 12 months would be very tough for us, particularly for our small-scale units, as we are yet to absorb Covid funk. In such a condition, we need more time," Mohammad Hatem, executive president at the BKMEA, told The Business Standard.
"So, we sought 36 months for repaying the outstanding amount," he also said, adding that the central bank assured of giving them at least 24 months.
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BKMEA President AKM Salim Osman at a meeting made the request to Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir at latter's office in the capital on Tuesday, while leaders from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association were also present.
The government in phases provided a stimulus fund of Tk10,500 crore to the apparel makers for paying salaries to their workers during the pandemic-led restrictions. On requests, it later extended moratorium facilities to the entrepreneurs in two phases.
Finally, the manufacturers started to pay instalments from Mid last year.
Apart from the request of extending repayment tenure, the BKMEA also urged the central bank to increase export-development funds to $30 million for them and extend repayment tenure for the loans from the fund.
Meanwhile, BGMEA President Faruque Hassan told the Business Standard, "Apart from today's [Tuesday] meeting, we earlier placed our demand before the Bangladesh Bank."
