Foreign-owned companies will also be eligible for receiving low cost loans from different stimulus packages, the Bangladesh Bank said in a circular issued on Thursday. To avail the loans, the foreign companies have to follow the same procedures followed by the local businesses. Considering the situation of Covid-19 pandemic, the central bank decided to include foreign companies in the stimulus fund facilities, reads the circular. As per the latest instruction, along with fully foreign-owned companies, local companies in joint venture with foreign companies and fully local companies operating under Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority, Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority will be eligible to apply for government declared stimulus packages. The instruction has been effective immediately from the date of issuing the circular. The Bangladesh Bank is supervising eight incentive packages announced by the government to offset the economic losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Within these eight packages of total Tk85,750 crore easy loan, around 54% of the packages have been disbursed among different beneficiaries during the last six months. According to the latest data from the central bank, about Tk25,648 crore was disbursed till September 20 under a loan package of Tk33,000 crore for affected large industries and the services sector. The distribution rate is about 78%. As of August 31, only around 20% of the Tk20,000 crore working capital loan was distributed in favor of 11,183 affected small (including cottage industries) and medium enterprises. After Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s address to the nation on March 26, the government first announced a Tk5,000 crore incentive package to pay wages to garment workers. The package has been 100% distributed. Under the Tk12,650 crore Export Development Fund, Tk9,328 crore has so far been disbursed among 1,361 borrowers at a disbursement rate of over 73%. Meanwhile, under the Tk5,000 crore agricultural refinancing package, loans worth Tk1,095 crore were distributed among 46,804 farmers or farms till August 31, with the disbursement rate being around 22%. So far, Tk1.11 crore has been disbursed out of the Tk5,000 crore for refinancing the pre-shipment sector. As of August 31, loan worth Tk1,078 crore (or nearly 36%) was disbursed to 14,956 farmers and small traders under the Tk3,000 crore refinancing package for low-income professionals, farmers and small traders.
