Yunus getting in the way of Grameen Bank reforms, says Muhith

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has again blamed Muhammad Yunus for the delay in restructuring embattled Grameen Bank.

The government is yet to appoint a chairman and managing director to the Nobel-winning microcredit lender even after amending the Grameen Bank Act.

Muhith has been blaming Yunus, its founding MD, for making things difficult for the government.

At a book launch on Monday, he said Yunus came to prominence when microcredit was institutionalised. Before that, small loans were limited among individuals.

“He is the first person to institutionalise it,” the minister said. “Unfortunately, he himself became the institution and that caused the rift between us.”

The Grameen Bank was set up through a military ordinance in 1983. Yunus shared the Nobel peace prize in 2006 with it.

But financial regulator Bangladesh Bank sacked Yunus from his post in March 2011 on the ground that he had crossed the official age limit.

Muhammad Yunus (File Photo)

The termination came a year after a Norwegian TV documentary accused him of transferring funds without informing the donors, alleging that the lenders protested his dealings.

Yunus challenged his firing at the High Court but lost.

Since then, he has been at loggerheads with the government.

He criticised the government’s initiative to bring the institution under the central bank’s supervision and announced to thwart the move.

The BNP threw its weight behind him.

A government inquiry into alleged irregularities recommended the institution’s decentralisation.

“The Grameen Bank needs more development,” Muhith said. “We want to improve it but his (Yunus’) supporters are creating obstacles by filing cases,” Muhith said.

Capital market ‘doing well’

The finance minister said the government had taken many steps to improve the capital market in the last five years.

AMA Muhith (File Photo)

“It’s in a much better shape now,” he said.

In his latest budget, Muhith proposed raising threshold of tax exemption on dividend income to Tk 25,000 from Tk 20,000.

In the budget speech, he said the capital market stood on “strong grounds” and that the government wanted to attract more companies to expand the market.

He criticised the investors who he said expected share prices to only rise, ignoring the possibility that stocks may fall.

“Overall, the capital market has turned into an investment market,” the minister added.