Editorial
Bank loan defaulters
Tighten the noose
The ongoing drive against all sorts of irregularities committed in the last decade or so has been successful so far in unveiling evidence of crimes of amazing proportion. Alongside corruption in all the other sectors, the country has also seen unbridled corruption in the banking sector, where either the directors of commercial banks have themselves taken hundreds of crores of taka as loan or have given such loans to corrupt businessmen. In the process the system has created a good number of big time bank defaulters. We are aware of the latest drive given by the intelligence agencies to collect information regarding financial misappropriation and violation of the Money Laundering Act by about 50 businessmen of the country. As part of the drive, the detectives have also collected documents of suspicious bank transactions by the businessmen in question from the central bank. It appears from the media reports that the central bank has been sitting on the information for many years. While we think the present drive against the big time bank defaulters deserves a pat on the back, we express our bewilderment as to why the valuable information did not surface before the change of government? And every time there is a change we see a flurry of activities on the part of the central bank and anti-corruption authorities. But at the end of the day the real problem remains unresolved. It is a common understanding that the case against bank loan defaulters should proceed on as per the laws of the central bank, Bangladesh Bank in this case, and the culprits should be given exemplary punishment to drive home the point that bank money has to be returned. The loan defaulters must be told in clear language that they cannot hide long behind political or any other power, and that they are not above the laws of the land. The caretaker government has to finish what it has started. The culture of bank loan default has to be uprooted now.
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