DHAKA, April 27, 2020 (BSS) – Bangladesh Bank (BB) today instructed all
banks to give agriculture loan at 4 percent interest rate aimed to boost crop
production to overcome the possible COVID-19 impact.
“There is an instruction to the scheduled banks to distribute loans at 4
percent interest to the farmers for cultivating import alternative crops
(pulses, oil seeds, spices and maize),” as per a BB circular issued here
today.
Now, the central bank asked banks to distribute loans at 4 percent
interest for all grains, including paddy and wheat, as mentioned in the
Agriculture and Rural Credit Policy and Programme.
The scheduled banks will receive 5 percent interest-loss from the
Bangladesh Bank against their disbursed loan amount, the circular added.
To this end, the central bank has formed a scheme on ‘providing
agriculture loan at 4 percent interest rate in crop sector to mitigate the
crisis due to novel coronavirus’.
The tenure of the scheme is April 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.