The defaulted farm loans increased to 19.39 per cent of total disbursed agriculture loans in the first 11 months of the financial year 2014-15 against 18.95 per cent defaulted loan of total disbursed loan during the same period of the FY14.
A BB official told New Age on Thursday that the recent political unrest had disrupted marketing of agricultural products which fuelled up the defaulted loans in the sector.
According to the latest BB data, the farm sector’s defaulted loans accounted for 19.39 per cent or 6,023.84 crore of the total loans (Tk 31,072.95 crore) disbursed in the sector as of May 31, 2015.
The classified loans in the sector were 18.97 per cent or 6,282.44 of the total loans (Tk 33,121.70 crore) disbursed as of May 31 last year.
A large number of farmers failed to repay their loans mainly in the first quarter of this year as they counted losses for failure in supplying their products to upazila and district headquarters and to metropolitan cities due to a countrywide nonstop blockade along with many spells of general strikes enforced by the BNP-led alliance in the period, a BB official told New Age.
He said that the defaulted farm loans had decreased significantly in the first quarter of the FY15 due to an eased political situation in the period. The defaulted loans in agriculture sector were Tk 6,006.80 crore as of September 30, 2014.
Seven state-run banks — Sonali, Janata, Agrani, Rupali, Bangladesh Krishi, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan and BASIC — held the majority share of the defaulted farm loans.
The farm sector’s defaulted loans in the seven state-run banks stood at Tk 5,935.91 crore against total defaulted loan of Tk 6,023.84 crore as of May 31, 2015.
The farm sector defaulted loans in the seven banks stood at 23.92 per cent of the total loans amounting to Tk 24,812.61 crore disbursed by the banks to the sector as of May 31, 2015.
The agriculture sector defaulted loans in the private and foreign commercial banks stood at Tk 87.93 crore as of May 31, 2015.
The sector’s defaulted loans in the PCBs and the FCBs stood at 1.40 per cent of their total loans amounting to Tk 6,260.34 crore disbursed to the sector as of May 31, 2015.
The BB official said that the state-run banks held larger amount of the agriculture defaulted loans than those of the PCBs and the FCBs as the state-run banks usually disburse the majority of the agriculture loans in the banking sector.
He said that the defaulted loans in the agriculture sector would increase further in the coming months if the political stalemate persists.
Prices of the most of the farm products declined significantly at the upazila level during January to March of this year as the farmers failed to supply the products to the district headquarters and the metropolitan cities due to a setback in the transportation system amid the ongoing political crisis, the central bank official added.
Source: New Age
