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The Bangladesh Bank has extended the deadline to apply for loans under a refinance scheme to renovate and modernise existing cinema halls and construct new ones to December 31 this year.
The central bank extended the deadline by one year as very few applications seeking loans under the scheme were submitted till the previous deadline was over.
The central bank’s Banking Regulation and Policy Department issued a circular in this regard on Wednesday.
According to the circular, the loan application deadline for the loan facility of the scheme was December 31, 2022.
As only a few applications were submitted seeking the loan, a big chunk of the funds under the scheme remained unutilised. Therefore, the application deadline has been extended to December 31, 2023, the circular read.
Bangladesh Bank took a refinance scheme of Tk 1,000 crore in January 2021, for the upgradation of the country’s cinema halls to revive the country’s film industry.
Under the scheme, Tk 500 crore will be released in the first phase and the remaining Tk 500 crore will be in the next phase. However, in the first phase, disbursement remained low because of the few number of loan applications. The interest rate for this fund is 5 per cent for metropolitan areas and 4.5 per cent for other areas.
According to the Bangladesh Motion Picture Exhibitors Association, there were about 14,350 cinema halls in the country in the early 1990s. At present, there are only 300 cinema halls with dilapidated infrastructure. Of these, 60 movie theatres screen films regularly.
At present, no cinema halls are left in many districts including Panchagarh, Kurigram, Gaibandha, Jhalakati, Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban and Khagrachhari.
