4 banks out of 56 sustain losses, finance minister tells Parliament

Four banks out a total of 56 operating in Bangladesh sustained losses last year, Finance Minister AMA Muhith has told Parliament.

The losing banks are state-owned Bangladesh Krishi Bank and BASIC Bank, the private ICB Islami Bank and the National Bank of Pakistan.

Answering a question on Sunday, Muhith said among the banks, Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd earned the highest profit of Tk 16.21 billion and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank the lowest of Tk 730 million.

To another query, he said the government collected Tk 590.63 billion in revenues in the July-December period of the 2014-15 fiscal year against a target of Tk 604.53 billion.

The rate of target achieved was at 97.7 percent.

He said the target for the entire fiscal year was fixed at about Tk 1.5 trillion.

Move to detect crimes in mobile banking

Obaidul Quader, deputed to represent the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology in Parliament, said the BTRC issued mobile-phone connection registration guidelines to check crimes in which mobile phones were used.

He said mobile-phone connections would be registered through the integration of national ID cards to prevent transactions of ‘illegal money’ through mobile banking and other crimes.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury presided over Sunday’s session.