Bangladesh’s per capital gross external debt now stands at $169, or Tk13,160, which is higher than what it was two years ago. On behalf of Finance Minister AMA Muhith, junior finance minister MA Mannan yesterday revealed the information in parliament while responding to a query. As on June 30, 2015, that is the last day of the immediate past FY2014-15, the country had an outstanding loan of $25,908 or Tk2,07,265 crore. Responding to a query, Mannan said Bangladesh had paid $182.43m or around Tk1,419 crore in interests against that loan amount. In reply to another question, the state minister for finance said that according to the Bangladesh Credit Information Bureau, the total number of loan defaulters in the country is 175,580. According to Mannan, there are 62 organisations offering banking services in the country, of which 56 are scheduled banks. In 2014, Islami Bank made the highest profit Tk1621.21 crore. On the other hand, state-owned BASIC Bank made the highest Tk110.79 crore loss. Other losing banks are Bangladesh Krishi Bank, ICB Islamic Bank and National Bank of Pakistan. Responding to another query, Mannan said that the Asian Development Bank will give $250m or around Tk2,000 crore as loan under the 3rd Capital Market Development Programme (CMDP-III) to develop the capital market in Bangladesh. He also said that the foreign exchange reserve was $5.349bn in 2009, but on August 2015, it rose to $26.16bn, which is the highest ever. In reply to another query, the junior minister said that in the 2014-15 fiscal year, a total of Tk1,28,771 crore was transacted through mobile banking. Up to July of the new fiscal year, the transacted amount stood at Tk13,811.52 crore.
