Country’s readymade garment exporters on Tuesday demanded that the government implement single-digit lending rate from today to save the apparel sector from the existing crisis. On behalf of RMG and textile sectors, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Rubana Huq made the demand in a letter to finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal. The demand was made following the implementation of the much-talked-about single-digit lending rate was on Monday once again deferred by another three months following a request from the bank owners. ‘Different media outlets reported that the government has decided to implement the 9 per cent interest rate from April 1, 2020. Country’s textile and apparel companies are now passing through a tough time due to an increase in their operating costs. Under the circumstance, 9 per cent lending rate should be implemented from January 1, 2020 to help the sector make a turnaround,’ Rubana said in her letter. On December 1, at a meeting with the bank owners and executives at the Planning Commission in the capital the finance minister had set the January 1, 2020 deadline for implementing the single-digit lending rate. Just two days before the expiry of the deadline he announced the new deadline after a meeting with the bank owners and executives at the office of the Bangladesh Association of Banks at Gulshan in Dhaka. Rubana said that country’s business organisations including BGMEA, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Textile Mills Association had been demanding reducing the bank loan interest rate to single digit for long. Against the backdrop, the prime minister had instructed authorities concerned to bring down the interest rate to single digit, Rubana said. ‘For the sake of increasing investment, reducing business operating cost and increasing export growth, we request you to implement 9 per cent interest rate from January 1, 2020 and to give necessary directives to the commercial banks in this regard ,’ the letter read.
