Home ›› 26 Apr 2023 ›› Front
The Biman Bangladesh Airlines has so far paid an additional Tk 141 crore in loan repayment instalments due to devaluation of the taka against the US dollar and increased interest rate in the international market, sources from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism have said.
The national flag carrier was provided a $31.23 crore loan from the reserve in 2019 to purchase two Boeing aircrafts. The amount of loan in Bangladeshi currency was Tk 2,652 crore as the price of dollar at that time was Tk 84.90 per dollar. Until now, Biman has paid 13 instalments against the loan.
In the 13th instalment, Biman was supposed to pay Tk 85 crore, but it had to pay Tk 118 crore due to the huge increase in the dollar price. It means, the national flag career was forced to pay over Tk 32 crore more.
Managing Director and CEO of Biman Shafiul Azim told The Business Post, “The price of dollar is increasing all over the world. In this situation, we are being forced to spend additional money in loan repayment instalments. Despite the additional cost, we are paying the instalments regularly. There are no dues till now.”
As per the loan agreement, the interest bearing loan was provided at 2 per cent interest and it has to be repaid in quarterly instalments in 15 years with a grace period of 10 years.
Sources said the devaluation of the taka against the US dollar, recent LIBOR rate hikes, US Treasury interest rate hikes, and Treasury bond interest rate hikes are the main reasons behind the huge increase in amount of loan repayment instalment.
As per the agreement, Biman has to repay the loan according to the prevailing exchange rate and interest rate. Earlier, when the loan was provided, LIBOR (London Inter Bank Offer Rate) rate was 1.75 per cent, now it has increased to 4.73 per cent. As a result, additional interest has to be paid in each repayment instalment.
Moreover, the price of the dollar was Tk 84.90 in December 2018 when the loan was provided. Currently, the price of the dollar has increased to Tk 111. Therefore, Biman has to pay a huge amount of additional money in each instalment.
The interest rate on this loan was determined by adding 1.5 per cent to the three-month LIBOR rate. At that time, the LI-BOR rate was 1.75 per cent. If 1.5 per cent is added to this, the interest rate stands at 3.25 per cent.
Till the beginning of 2022, Tk1,125 crore has been paid at 3.25 per cent interest rate and Tk 86dollar rate.
But from May 2022, the price of the dollar started to increase. Since then, the amount of money in each instalment also started to increase.
So far, due to increase in dollar price and LIBOR rate, Biman had paid Tk 141 crore extra in 13 loan repayment instalments.
