Most of the businessmen are not able to use the government offered stimulus package as they have short of fresh mortgage and many of them export through third party traders.

The Bangladesh Government has announced seven major stimulus packages through banking channel to offset negative impact of coronavirus pandemic on economy.

The money avail from working capital or (Cottage, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises ( CMSME) scheme is too tough.

“Bank sought fresh mortgage from us. We have used most of our property for existing business loan, how we generate fresh property for the new loan,” Seyum Raihan, proprietor of Raihan Textile, at Narayanganj told Business Mirror.

Besides, the central bank made it available for those exporters in opening letter of credit under stimulus package who only export their 85 per cent of total product.

“We export most of our products to Europe through a third party buyer operating in Bangladesh. For which we could not claim the stimulus loan,” Asifur Rahman Kollol, an exporter of high end woven products told Business Mirror.

“In order to ease liquidity in the banking sector to support these stimulus schemes, the central bank has reduced Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by 1.5% .The repo rate has also been reduced by 75 basis points in two stages. Advance to Deposit Ratio (ADR) threshold increased,”  Fazle Fahim, President of FBCCI said. He assured that if any problem arise in using the package the FBCCI leaders will launch talk with the central bank.

“In the advent of economic shock, the borrowers who would primarily need additional support are probably the ones who are more susceptible to default.” He added

Tk. 5,000 crore stimulus package for payment of wages and salaries by export-oriented industries has already been availed by majority of the companies. Under this scheme, the borrowers can avail loans for payment of wages and salaries of their workers for the months of April, May, and June. After a grace period of six months, the borrowers will repay the loan in 18 equal monthly installments from January, 2021 till June, 2022.

Reaching the stimulus packages to the right kinds of beneficiary  while maintaining transparency and accountability is essential, Dr. Melita Mehjabeen,  associate professor at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka said.