Home ›› 09 May 2022 ›› Front
Cinema hall owners will be able to apply for a low-interest loan from the refinancing fund until December 31 this year.
The deadline had expired on March 31. But Bangladesh Bank (BB) instructed to extend the time as many loan applications have not been received yet.
The development came through a circular of the bank’s Banking Regulation and Policy Department (BRPD) on Sunday.
It stated that the decision to extend the time was made as many interested customers could not apply in time as they were not informed.
In February last year, BB had started the refinancing scheme of Tk 1,000 crore to support the country’s film industry to have modern cinema halls built and the old ones renovated.
In the first phase, Tk 500 crore will be distributed. If the loan is successfully disbursed and recovered, the remaining Tk 500 crore will be disbursed in the second phase.
As per last year’s circular, hall owners will have to apply to banks for the loans and banks will distribute loans examining their project’s financing viability. A hall owner will be able to borrow a maximum of Tk 5 crore.
Financing banks will take the fund from BB at 1.5 per cent interest. For cinema halls in the metropolitan areas, the interest rate is 5 per cent and 4.5 per cent for those outside the metropolitan areas.
The loan cannot be used as working capital. It can only be used for the construction of new cinema halls, renovation of old ones, and modernization and import of equipment, machinery and technology.
Apart from this, shopping complexes that houses have cinema halls will also get a loan from this fund.
Loan repayment time is eight years, which includes a one-year grace period and a provision of three monthly equal instalments of payback facility.
If a hall owner uses the loan for a different purpose, an additional 2 per cent interest will be charged.
In its circular last year, the central bank had stated that there were about 1,400 cinema halls around this country in the nineties.
But due to various obstacles, this number is gradually decreasing.
The existing cinema halls need to be renovated and modern cinema halls need to be built to provide healthy entertainment for the people. Such long-term loans at low-interest will help the hall owners to do this.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared the cinema sector as an industry on April 3 in 2012 to create a renaissance among the people involved in the sector by enhancing their skills through modern technology and also to an investment-friendly atmosphere.
