Janata Bank won
Janata Bank will not charge interest on loans for six months and will make available Tk 255 crore loan facilities for farming and income-generating activities in cyclone Sidr-hit rural areas.
The interest benefit will be applicable to both on new and outstanding farm and non-farm loans, a high official of the state-run bank said yesterday.
According to a press statement, the bank said it has decided to go for remission of six months’ interest with effective from November 2007.
The cyclone-hit farmers will also receive new ‘agri/rural credit’ from the bank by rescheduling their previously dues without any down payment for two years.
Of the total Tk 255 crore loan facilities, Tk 125 crore has been allocated for farming activities, while Tk 130 crore for non-farming income-generating programmes to be disbursed through non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
A recent board meeting of the bank having a network of 848 branches including 4 overseas branches took the decision to help the devastating cyclone-affected people to recoup losses.
Cyclone Sidr pounded the country’s southern coast on November 15, killing more than 3,400 people, leaving 2.8 lakh people homeless and destroying crops, fishery and livestock.
About eight lakh metric tons of aman rice crops worth around Tk 2,000 crore have been damaged in the southwestern districts, shows the agriculture ministry’s final damage assessment.
In order to expedite loan disbursement activities high officials of the bank have already visited Sidr-affected areas.
The bank hopes the fund allocated in income-generating activities will be disbursed by December 16.
BB ASKS BANKS TO GIVE FRESH LOANS TO WEAVERS
The central bank meanwhile has asked commercial banks to give fresh loans to flood-affected weavers in Pabna and Sirajganj districts.
Under the central bank’s post-flood rehabilitation programme, the flood-hit weavers can receive fresh credit through rescheduling their previous classified loans free instant credit score estimator. The banks may relax the provisions of down payment for rescheduling of loans, if necessary.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) issued a circular to this effect on Thursday and directed managing directors of all scheduled banks to follow the instructions on disbursement of loans to the weavers, according to a BB statement.
The central bank also asked the banks to set up credit monitoring and compliance cells at different levels to ensure monitoring of the overall handloom loan disbursement without any harassment.