Considering the post-1991 era in Bangladesh politics, widely associated with the advent of parliamentary democracy in the country, whichever party has filled the Treasury benches in parliament and formed or at least led the government has done so imbibing a certain consistency in their appointments to some of the most prominent and important roles in the cabinet - none more so than that of the finance minister. Chiefly responsible for steering the economy, the visionary role affords its holder tremendous influence across the entire array of Civic life in Bangladesh.

Saifur Rahman, S.A.M.S Kibria, Abul Mal Abdul Muhith -each now legendary figures in their own right in their party's histories. Not for the tremendously silly things that they occasionally got caught up in, but rather the reliable. Whether AHM Muystafa Kamal belongs in the same lineage remains to be seen, even accounting for the formidable careerhe has forged thus far, resembling an orderly progression to the height he now scales, aged 72: almost universally, in every meeting of every cabinet, the finance minister's seat is reserved right next to that of the prime minister.

We know for example, that in visrtually his first act as finance minister, Kamal floated the idea ofthe amendment of the bank company law, and later we learned ofa 17-point directiveto the Financial Institutions Division (FID) of the Finance Ministry. The work has already started to implement these and you'd start seeing them soon, we are told.

Apart from the possible amendment, It is notable that among the rest of the instructions, the formation of a legal task force for the formation of government task force in the search and earning of the default loan increase, the formation of the legal action team in the form of a right-to-loan loan, the identification of all loan defaulters since 1972, whether bankers are involved in increasing the default loan Identification and calculation of loan borrowed to state-owned banks.

Recently, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told reporters that the amount of defaulted loans would have come down much lower if the existing relevant laws could be implemented and implemented. Because of these weaknesses, these laws can not be implemented. To overcome the vulnerabilities of various sections and sub-rights of the law. That's why the law will be amended.

Asked about this, Additional Secretary (banking) Fazlul Haque said, before the formation of the bank company law and the formation of the taskforce, before the meeting, senior officials of the concerned bank will be held. The suggestions for reducing the reasons for the increase in default from them will be taken. Then the financial institutions department will take necessary steps. Banking sector experts can also be in government taskforce - he indicated that he could.

World Bank Lead Economist Dr Zahid Hossain recently said to Jugantor that the first job of the new government financial sector should be - to restore order in the banking sector as quickly as possible. It will take all necessary steps. In this case it is necessary to take action against the deliberately large defaulters and account holders of account holders.

According to the Ministry of Finance, a month after the oath of office as AHM Mustafa Kamal was held with officials of the financial institution. At the meeting, he reduced the amount of deficit loans, the reason for the increase in the loan amount and those who were involved in the 17 instructions given by the concerned people.

According to sources, the finance minister has given the most importance in these instructions - how to reduce the amount of default money. For this, he ordered the amendment of the relevant bank company law and money laundering court law. However, in order to amend the Malaysian Bank Companies Act to follow the law, he said. There are more in the guidelines - all banks will be asked to apply 'Block Chain Technology' to ensure transparency and transparency of the bank's transactions. It is directed to all concerned banks. In order to develop this kind of technology, the concerned officers and employees are asked to provide training abroad.

According to sources, the task force will be constituted, it will take effective steps to investigate the reasons for defaulting and to make the payment. In fact, the bank loan amounting to Tk 99, 370 crore till last September, in the banking sector. At the same time the amount of debt distribution has reached 8.88 billion taka. This defaulter rate is 11.45 percent of the total loan.

According to the concerned, about two to two and a half billion taka in the banking sector will be bad loans. It has been excluded from the account, which is shown as an undisclosed debt.

It is known that state-owned banks have eroded the defaulting loans at different times. However, the amount of debt has been abolished so far - according to the directive of the Finance Minister, its actual calculation will be sought by the banks. Besides, these steps have been taken to know what kind of steps have been taken to provide these loans. Finance Minister has ordered the formation of a legal action team of the unorganized income. The team will take steps to impose a loan with outsourcing.

Regarding the finance minister's direction, a concerned official of the ministry said that the loan seekers have to be identified since 1972. These were ordered to investigate the reasons for the defaulting and whether there is any involvement of the government officials. It is said, whether borrowers' argument is rational or whether it is a dishonest behavior is to be found out. The finance minister said, "How much the default loan has increased, whether there is any negligence and irresponsibility of any bank officials behind this increase" will be examined.

According to the sources, financial institutions division has already started working in implementing these directives of the finance minister. Senior officials of financial institutions, senior officials of different banks, are meeting. A senior official of the Ministry of Finance said that the rate of defaulted loan is currently 13 percent. It's a lot more. It was okay from 7 to 8 percent. Now it has to be lowered downwards. Work has begun for this.

Teamwork it'll be

Financial Institutions Division (FID) under the Ministry of Finance has formed a three-member team to recommend how to reduce the volume of classified loans in the country's banking system.

The members of team met with the senior officials of Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Tuesday just a day after forming the high-powered body, officials said.

On Monday, the FID assigned its joint secretary Md. Rizwanul Huda as chief of the team, they added.

At the meeting, officials from both the central bank of Bangladesh and the FID discussed about amendment of three acts -- Banking Companies, Bankruptcy and Artha Rin Adalats (Money Loan Courts) for settling the cases within the shortest possible time-frame.

The meeting also discussed how to expedite Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system to help settle of loan disputes, they added.

"We're working to prepare a recommendation to lessen the amount of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the banking system without hampering the country's overall business activities," a senior official told the FE after the meeting.

Deputy Governor of the BB Ahmed Jamal led the central bank officials at the meeting.

The team is scheduled to meet top executives of four leading state-owned commercial banks (SoCBs) on the same ground, according to the FID officials.

"We may also meet with senior chief executive officers (CEOs) of some private commercial banks (PCBs) to discuss the same issues," a senior member of the team told the FE.

He also said the team will meet the top executives of Agrani Bank Limited today (Wednesday) as per scheduled. "We'll also meet with senior executives of Rupali Bank Limited tomorrow (Thursday)."

The team is scheduled to meet the top executives of other two SoCBs in the next week, the FID official added.

The team has been formed in line with the decisions that were taken at a meeting held at the ministry on January 10 with newly appointed Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair.

After the meeting, the minister reportedly said the government will amend the banking companies act to recover the default loans.

As per the meeting decisions, another committee will also be formed to recover the written-off loans. The working group will examine why the loans are not being realised.

The committee is yet to be formed, according to the FID officials.

The new finance ministry's moves came against the backdrop of rising volume of the default loans in the country's banking system in the recent months.

The volume of NPLs jumped by nearly 34 per cent or Tk 250.67 billion to Tk 993.70 billion as on September 30, from Tk 743.03 billion as on December 31, 2017, according to the BB data.

The share of classified loans also rose to 11.45 per cent of the total outstanding loans during the period under review from 9.31 per cent nine months ago.

The default loans include substandard, doubtful and bad/loss of total outstanding credits, which stood at Tk 8,680.07 billion as on September 30, 2018, from Tk 7,981.96 billion as on December 31, 2017.