Two local representatives of Prince Bandar Bin Mohammad Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Saud, the highest bidder for this bank, went to Saudi Arabia last week following government pressure to complete the $458 million deal soon.

"The Privatisation Commission has sent a number of letters to the Saudi prince and talked with him over telephone asking to make payment but did not get any positive response so far," said a commission source. "Whenever we asked them over telephone to send money, they agreed but did nothing."

Deadlines for making payment already expired with the latest deadline expiring on May 31.

Privatisation Commission Chairman Abu Solaiman Chowdhury could not be contacted for his comment.

The two local representatives of the Saudi prince -- Musa Bin Shamsher, owner of Datco International, and Frank Peters -- flew to Saudi Arabia on Thursday to persuade him to make quick payment, sources said.

An official of Datco International yesterday told The Daily Star that Musa Bin Shamsher is hopeful that they would be able to persuade the prince to pay the money by July.

In February, the government approved a proposal to sell its remaining 26 percent share of Rupali Bank to Prince Bandar for $128 million, which would give him 93 percent ownership of the bank.

The prince had earlier bought 67 percent share of the bank from the BNP-led coalition government.

Meanwhile, Rupali Bank's activities have virtually come to a standstill for the last one year, except some routine businesses.

"We are forced to suspend disbursement of all kinds of loans for the last one year," said a senior official of the bank. " Only last week the central bank permitted us to release loans on a limited scale."

Another official said many of the bank staff have applied for voluntary retirement while many more are looking for other jobs.

"A total of 650 staff out of 4,500 have applied for voluntary retirement under the Golden Handshake scheme since April 30," he said.

As per official data, Ruplai Bank's capital deficit was Tk 569 crore in December last year and its accumulative loss was Tk 261 crore at that time.

The bank's classified loan was Tk 1,435 crore as of March this year, which is 32 percent of the total outstanding loan. An official of the bank said the figure would have been higher if Tk 600 crore loan was not rescheduled last year.