Top 300 defaulters hold half of bad loans

The top 300 defaulters held half the total bad loans of banks and non-bank financial institutions as of December last year.

They held Tk50,942 crore of the non-performing loans (NPLs), Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said while placing the list of top defaulters at parliament on Saturday.

A total of 58,436 more borrowers became defaulters between September 2015 and December 2018, the minister revealed in response to a question by Md Israfil Alam, a ruling Awami League lawmaker.

The top 10 loan defaulters are Chattogram-based Shamnaj Super Oil  with a loan of Tk1,049 crore, Galaxy Sweater and Yarn Dyeing of Gazipur with Tk984 crore, Remex Footwear of Savar with Tk976 crore, Quantum Power System of Dhaka with Tk828 crore, Mahin Enterprise of Chattogram with Tk825 crore, Rupali Composite of Dhaka with Tk798 crore, Crescent Leather of Dhaka with Tk776 crore, SA Oil Refinery with Tk707 crore, Suprov Composite Knit of Gazipur with Tk610 crore and Grameen Shakti with Tk601 crore.

Mustafa Kamal disclosed a list of 14,617 borrowers who have taken loans above Tk5 crore since 2009.

A big portion of the borrowers having loans more than Tk5 crore turned into defaulters and their defaulted amount was Tk100,183 crore.

The default loan increased by Tk43,210 crore in the past 39 months, according to the finance minister.

Lutfun Nesa Khan, a member of parliament, wanted to know the number of loan defaulters and the defaulted amount between 2009 and 2018.

In reply, the minister said as there was no data warehouse and the information from before September 2015 was not available with the Credit Information Bureau of Bangladesh Bank, defaulters’ information of 2009 could not be placed before parliament.

Kamal said the number of defaulters was 111,954 in September 2015 and the defaulted amount of loans was Tk59,105 crore.

In December 2018, the number of total defaulters stood at 170,390 and the defaulted amount was Tk102,315 crore, he added.