Daily Bangla Times : The government’s move to borrow heavily from the banking sector has increased to meet the budget deficit. The government takes about 75 percent of the internal loans from the banking sector. On the other hand, taking loans from the non-banking sector, especially savings certificates, has declined. However, the interest rate in this sector is the highest. The government is to expend money about twice fold to pay interest of savings certificates.

According to sources in the finance division, the government pays the savings certificates’ liability through taking loans from the banking sector.

According to the statistics of the finance division of the Ministry of Finance, the amount of net borrowing of the government from internal sources in the last fiscal year 2021-2022 was Tk 1 lakh 8 thousand 978 crore. Out of this, the net loan taken from the banking system was Tk 79 thousand 211 crore, which is 73 percent of internal loan. From the banking sector, Tk 43 thousand 456 crores from treasury bonds, 25 thousand 755 crores from treasury bills and 10 thousand crore from sukuk have been taken.

In the first three months of the current fiscal year 2022-2023 (July-September 2022), the government's net borrowing from the banking system stood at Tk 6,550 crore. In the same period of the last financial year 2021-2022, the amount of net borrowing of the government from the banking system was Tk 14,483 crores. Accordingly, in the first three months of the current financial year, the borrowing of the government from the banking system is much less than that of the previous financial year. However, it is reported that the amount of borrowing from the bank has increased in December.

Meanwhile, in the last financial year 2021-2022, the net borrowing taken from the non-bank sector was Tk 29 thousand 767 crore. This is only 27 percent of the internal debt. Among the non-banking sector, Tk 19,907 crore was borrowed from savings certificates (the target announced in the budget was Tk 32,000 crore) and Tk 9,860 crore was borrowed from other sectors.