Nationalised commercial banks must operate with their own money: Finance minister

The government will not provide its commercial banks with any funds from now on, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said.

They must operate with their own money, he told the chairmen, managing directors and chief executives of Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali banks in a meeting at the National Economic Council on Sunday.

Besides these four, the government has another bank, BASIC, among the more than 50 banks operating in Bangladesh.

The nationalised commercial banks seek government funds every year to meet lack of capital due to default loans and other reasons, and the government has been obliging them as well.

The government gave the banks Tk 124.72 billion from 2012-13 to 2017-18 fiscal years in different ways, but started limiting the funding in the last financial year.

“I’ve told them in the meeting today that there will be no more re-financing for the government banks from now on. They must earn and pay taxes to the government,” Kamal said.  

He advised the banks to come up with plans to overcome the situation. Details on the plans will be discussed in a meeting next Sunday, the minister said. 

The government was open to the idea of providing other sorts of help to its banks, he said, and added that it hoped these will make at least 15 percent profit.

Asked for comments on a possible global recession predicted by international analysts, he said economic depressions will not harm Bangladesh as it produces goods that meet basic needs, not luxury products.