Close on heels of Bangladesh Bank again extending the tenure of the special loan rescheduling facility by three months for leather sector entities that have relocated to the Savar Leather Industrial Park — a Bangladesh Bank circular issued recently extended the application submission deadline till 30 December 2021, even as the central bank on 6 January 2021 introduced the policy, setting 31 March 2021 as the application submission deadline, which was later extended twice till 30 September while the latest circular issued in this direction maintained the scope of availing the same was extended by three months since Bangladesh had been going through a fresh wave of the coronavirus outbreak — the Bangladesh Tanners Association has maintained the Bangladesh Bank’s offer to allow the rescheduling of loans until December would only benefit tanners that have a good relationship with their respective commercial banks.
This was maintained by media reports which claimed the tanners’ guarded optimism stems from their past experience wherein only a handful of tanners, reportedly, benefitted based on their bank-client relationship even if other tanners eligible for rescheduling were not able to secure the benefits.
“…this circular has been issued four times since January, but commercial banks are not taking initiative in this regard,” reportedly, maintained President of the Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) Shaheen Ahmed, adding, “We have met with banks and financial institutions more than once,” even as general secretary of the BTA, Shakawat Ullah, on his part, reportedly, underlined that the circular issued by the Bangladesh Bank always has a number of conditions.
