Former Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud took a loan from the state-owned Rupali Bank in 2013 to build a fishing trawler. For more than 11 years, he has not paid even 1 tk. Despite this, his debt is regular. In effect, the grace period i.e. the start of payment has been extended when it comes time to pay the installments in a novel manner. He has waived the interest several times without paying attention to the rules. Now the bank’s debt stands at Tk 19 crore 3 lakh. It is said that this loan will soon become a defaulter due to non-renewal of facilities.

According to Bangladesh Bank and Rupali Bank sources, Hashan Mahmud got one of the 34 trawlers licensed by the government in 2011 for deep sea fishing. After the formation of the Awami League government in 2009, he first became the state minister of the Ministry of Forests and Environment and in 2011 he became a minister. Being a government minister, Bismillah Marine Services trawler license was taken in the name of his wife Nooran Fatema. Rupali Bank approved Tk 12 crore 54 lakh in December 2013 showing the construction cost of the trawler Tk 25 crore 40 lakh. The bank disbursed Tk 11 crore 68 lakh in three installments. Construction of the trawler was completed in October 2014. After that, he has not paid even 1 tk till date due to various reasons including engine failure. When the installments are due, they reschedule with no down payment. Waiver of interest on any loan is granted irrespective of the condition of death of the borrower, natural calamity, epidemic, pestilence, flood, distress.

When asked, Managing Director of Rupali Bank, Mohammad Jahangir, told media, “The loan has been regularly shown to him with facilities at various times. After I became MD, pressure was put on the banks to waive off the interest taken in the income sector. However, the interest was not waived off. In the current situation, this loan will be defaulted.

Ex-Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmood was discussed for various reasons including taunting the opponents with excuses for not repaying the debt, allegations of building wealth abroad.

Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) froze his account on August 11 while on the run after the fall of the government. Those concerned said that initially the trawler could not be lowered into the water due to a fault in the engine – he refrained from paying the loan for the first four years. He extended the grace period of two rounds of loans by one year. After this, the bank approved the third round of re-enrollment on December 19, 2017. 1 crore 18 lakh taka of interest levied and taken in the income sector is completely waived. In view of the bank’s application, Bangladesh Bank gave no objection to rescheduling the loan with interest waiver on January 3, 2018 without any down payment.

It is learned that the third tranche loan is approved for rescheduling for 12 years at only 8 percent interest with a grace period of one year. After that, in 2019, the bank gives a grace period of one year to pay the installments again. After that Corona started in 2020. Even if no one paid a single rupee that year, there was no default. Hashan Mahmud took advantage of re-registration again in 2022 citing business losses. 32 lakh 86 thousand taka was waived in this phase. According to the latest revision, from April 2022, each installment of Tk. 57 lakh 64 thousand is to be paid. Accordingly, a total of Tk 10 crore 37 lakh is to be paid in 18 installments till last July. But he didn’t do it anymore. In fact, the bank owes him 19 crore 3 lakhs in interest. He was pressing for the interest waiver of 5 crore 87 lakh taka, which has already been taken in the income sector. But the bank did not agree. The former minister went into hiding as the government fell due to the debt negotiations with the bank. As a result, the bank is relieved to survive the new pressure. However, there are concerns about the bank’s debt collection. In this way, there is no precedent for repeated interest waivers, rescheduling without down payment, extending the grace period when the loan repayment time comes.

Hasan Mahmud and his wife Nooran Fatema were absconding and could not be contacted. And Kamrul Hasan, an official of FMC Dockyard, the company under construction of the ship-trawler, told media that the cost depends on the design and size of the trawler.

Observations of Rupali Bank

In 2017, Rupali Bank’s monitoring report on Bismillah Marine’s loan rescheduling special facility said, “It should not take more than 6 months to make the trawler free of defects.” However, the borrower and the dockyard authorities are delaying the payment by putting the blame on each other.

In this regard, in the audit of the Commercial Audit Department, the Mercantile Marine Department on December 24, 2014 stated that the registration and operation of the fishing trawler was satisfactory. However, the customer company requested to extend the loan repayment period citing the problems in the trial of the trawler from December 13 to 15 of that year. If indeed there were problems, the December 24 inspection report would not have been satisfactory. From this, it appears that the customer is not paying the loan using the problem of the trawler as an excuse. Despite this, he got special benefits due to the strong efforts of the then MD Ataur Rahman Pradhan. Ataur was appointed the managing director of Sonali Bank the following year.

Ataur Rahman told reporters in March 2018 when he was the managing director of Rupali Bank, “It is not that there are no trawlers. There is a trawler.’ When asked why the engine was not fixed for four years, he said that due to construction defects, even lowering the trawler into the sea did not result. The engine with the kind of power it was supposed to deliver, may not have. For which reason returned to the manufacturer for repair.