The central bank is slowly coming out of the culture of hiding defaulted loans. This has broken all previous records in the increase in defaulted loans. In the first 6 months of this year, the defaulted loans of the banking sector increased by about 66 thousand crores and for the first time exceeded 2 lakh crores. At the end of last June, defaulted loans stood at 2 lakh 11 thousand 391 crores.

According to the data of Bangladesh Bank, the total debt status of banks at the end of June stood at 16 lakh 83 thousand 396 crores. This means that 12.56 percent of the total debt is defaulted. Three months ago, at the end of last March, the amount of defaulted loans was 1 lakh 82 thousand 295 crores which was 11.11 percent. During April-June, defaulted loans increased by Tk 29 thousand 96 crores in three months. And at the end of last December, defaulted loans were Tk 1 lakh 45 thousand 633 crores. This means an increase of 36 thousand 662 crores in the first three months of the year.

Those concerned said that before the government fell, the opportunity to reduce the defaulted debt has decreased since last March by complying with the conditions of the IMF. Due to laxity of supervision, the loans disbursed through fraud and irregularities are not coming back. After the fall of the government, many Awami League businessmen have already fled. Due to this, defaulted loans may increase in the future, bankers said.

The organization has given various conditions for the IMF loan of 4.7 billion dollars. By 2026, according to their conditions, the non-performing loans of private banks should be reduced below 5 percent and that of government banks below 10 percent. However, the organization has informed that the current policy support cannot be kept to reduce defaulted loans