AL team visits BB to ‘know how it functions’
A delegation from the ruling Awami League visited the Bangladesh Bank yesterday to “learn how it functions”.
“We have not given any instruction to the central bank. Rather, we have come here to know how the central bank carries out its due role,” said Mashiur Rahman, economic affairs adviser to the prime minister.
The AL has never interfered in the affairs of the central bank, he told reporters after a meeting with the central bank high-ups in its headquarters in the capital where Governor Fazle Kabir was also present.
“We have also learned from the meeting how the central bank implements its monetary policy and supervises lenders,” said Rahman.
The adviser’s comment comes at a time when the central bank is going to issue licences for three more new banks amid pressure from political quarters.
The central bank has also been forced to allow large borrowers, who got restructuring facility from it in 2015, to reschedule their loans, going against its own policy.
Asked whether the committee had given any directive on the ongoing crackdown on casinos, Rahman said there had been no discussion to this end.
The delegation comprised 11 members of the finance and planning affairs sub-committee of the AL led by Rahman, who is also the committee’s chairman.
The committee requested the central bank to extend its reach to empower rural women entrepreneurs in the interest of the economy, said an official of the central bank.
It called for measures to give collateral-free loans to female SME entrepreneurs, said sources. The central bank should take initiatives to give a boost to these entrepreneurs by increasing loan disbursement in rural areas.
