Owners demand more than half of fund to pay one-month salary

Owners of export-oriented industries have demanded more than half of the total amount allocated for paying wages of workers just to pay them for one month.

The fund was created to pay the workers for three months.

The government created a Tk 5,000 crore fund to be utilised for the disbursement of wages of workers and employees of export-oriented industries for three months from April to June.

But to pay one-month salary, industries owners are demanding more than half of the total amount. Till Sunday, a total of 2,044 owners applied to Bangladesh Bank for loans worth Tk 3,047.63 crore through 47 banks.

The central bank has so far released Tk 2,000 crore to the banks from the government-announced Tk5,000 crore stimulus package. The central bank will apply to the finance ministry to get the rest of the fund.

The novel coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the economy both on national and global scale. Lockdown has forced everything from production and marketing to movement of people and goods to a stall. Factory owners kept their industrial units shut as export-import activities stopped. In such a situation, the government on March 25 announced a stimulus package of Tk5,000 crore for export-oriented industries to fight the adverse effect of coronavirus on the country's economy.

BB created the Tk5,000-crore fund so that export-oriented industries could pay their workers. On April 2, the central bank issued a guideline to disburse the amount as a soft loan to factory owners at 2 percent service charge.

The central bank also instructed the workers to open mobile bank accounts by April 20 so their wages can be channelled through the accounts. Following the decision, around 26 lakh accounts were opened anew with three largest Mobile Financial Service (MFS) providers — bKash, Rocket, Nagad.

Initially, only local industries were considered eligible for loans from the package. Later, workers under the export processing zones were taken into consideration.

According to the sources in finance ministry, the ministry had released Tk2,000 crore to the central bank under the Tk 5,000 crore package.

BB Executive Director and spokesperson Md Serajul Islam said the central bank released that amount in favour of 47 banks against their demand for Tk3047.63 crore.

BB will apply to the finance ministry for the rest of the amount, he added.

To maintain transparency, the central bank took the decision of sending wages to workers through mobile accounts, said insiders. Around 20 lakh workers had earlier been receiving wages through their mobile bank accounts. With the newly opened 26 lakh mobile accounts, salaries and wages will be channelled to a total of 46 lakh mobile accounts. Of the total mobile accounts, 16.5 lakh accounts are with bKash, 23 lakh with Rocket, and seven lakh with Nagad. Apart from this, workers have been receiving salaries through some other mobile bank accounts and usual bank accounts.

The owners of the export-oriented industries receiving loans under the package will have to pay back the fund within two years after a six-month of grace period. It means the instalment starts in January 2021 but ends in June 2022.  

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