Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir has said that lending money from the banks to meet the budget deficits will create no problem as those have sufficient money.
He was responding to a question at the proposed budget-post-virtual press conference for the new fiscal year (2020-21) on Friday (June 12).
Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzak, Planning Minister MA Mannan, Prime Minister's Energy Adviser Tawfiq –E- Ilahi Chowdhury BB, Finance Adviser Dr. Mashiur Rahman, Governor of Bangladesh Bank Fazle Kabir, Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Abu Hena. Rahmatul Munim, Member of the General Economic Division of the Planning Commission (Senior Secretary) Shamsul Alam, Finance Secretary Abdur Rauf Talukder took part in the post budget press conference.
The BB Governor said the government has planned to borrow Tk. 84,983 crore from the banking sector to meet the deficits in the proposed budget. It will not have much effect. Because the government has already borrowed Tk. 74,000 crore from the banking sector in the current financial year. No problem. It has set a target of taking Tk. 82,000 crore in the current financial year. This will not be a problem.
Claiming that there is sufficient liquidity in the banking sector at present, the Governor said that as on April 30, the banking sector has Tk.1 lakh 13 thousand crore surplus cash liquidity. Besides, there is another reserve of Tk. 62,000 crore. As a result, there is no liquidity problem in the banking sector. If we take loans, there will be no problem in this sector.
The Governor said there would be no problem in implementing Tk. 40000 crore stimulus package announced by the government as refinancing fund to deal with the financial losses caused by coronavirus. Besides, CRR (Cash Deposit Reservation of Banks) has been waived and a total of Tk. 72,000 crore is being provided including Tk. 18,000 crore. It is hoped that this will not be a problem in implementing the stimulus package.
In the proposed budget, however, the excise duty has been kept as it is now in case of bank account balance up to Tk. 10 lakh. However, it has been proposed to increase the excise duty from Tk. 2500 to Tk. 3000 on bank accounts with a balance of more than Tk. 10 lakh to Tk. 1 crore. It has been proposed to increase the excise duty from Tk. 12,000 to Tk. 15,000 in case of balance between Tk. 1 crore and Tk. 5 crore.
Regarding the increase in excise duty in the budget, the governor said that the excise duty has been increased for those who have deposits of Tk. 10 lakh and above. However, the duty has not been increased for those who deposit below Tk. 10 lakh. And there will be no problem of deposit. Earlier, the deposit pressure in the bank was less due to savings certificates, but now it is no more.
Asked if any action would be taken on the issue of foreign investors taking dividends in times of crisis, the governor said the central bank did not intervene in taking dividends. Central bank looks when those are sold.