Banks have distributed 91.46 percent agriculture loans in 11 months of the current fiscal year.
Bangladesh Bank’s (BB) latest data released on Tuesday show that different scheduled banks have disbursed agriculture credit of Tk 25966.73 crore in July-May period of fiscal year 2021-22 against the disbursement target of Tk28391 crore.
In the previous FY 21, Tk 21,970.39 crore were disbursed against the target of Tk 26,292 crore, which is 83.56 percent of the target.
Md. Abdul Hakim, executive director and former GM of Agriculture Credit Department, BB told UNB that the central bank hoped 100 percent agriculture credit disbursement target will be achieved this fiscal.
According to a report of the agriculture credit department of BB, demand and collection of agricultural loans have increased in the current financial year as compared to last fiscal.
The agriculture loan disbursement has increased by 18.18 percent in the current financial year as compared to the same period of the previous financial year.
However, due to the adverse impact of Covid-19 pandemic, the distribution and collection of agricultural loans decreased in the last fiscal year.
In the current FY 22, the target for government-owned commercial and specialized banks was set at Tk11045 crore. In the first 11 months (July-May), these banks disbursed Tk 10,694 crore, which is 96.83 percent of the target.
During this period, against the set target of Tk 17,346 crore for private and foreign banks, Tk 15,271 crore or 88.04 percent has been disbursed.
At present, the outstanding balance of agricultural credit in the banking sector stands at Tk49551 crore. Of this, the defaulted debt in the agricultural sector till April was Tk 3,652 crore or 7.67 percent of the total agriculture credit.
Source: United News of Bangladesh