The Bangladesh Bank has claimed that four Beximco Group companies owned by Salman F. Rahman have not paid back the US $ 25.43 million that they borrowed from the Export Development Fund (EDF) of the bank some years ago.
Springful Apparels owes the EDF US $ 12.26 million, Pink Maker Garments US $ 8.53 million, Autumn Loop Apparels US $ 4.36 million, and Platinum Garments US $ 0.28 million, according to central bank data.
As a result of the Beximco Group’s foreign currency loans not being recouped, Janata Bank’s EDF lending facility has been suspended since 7th November 2022. The vice-chairman of the Beximco Group is Salman F. Rahman. He advised former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on investments and the private sector. His elder brother, Ahmed Sohail Fasihur Rahman, is the chairman of Beximco Group.
Salman was arrested on Tuesday night in the Sadarghat area of the capital. His whereabouts had been unknown since the ouster of the Hasina Government amid the mass uprising on 5th August.
Mustafa K Mujeri, former chief economist of the Bangladesh Bank, told the local media that the EDF loan taken from the reserve is intended to boost exports. However, there is no justification for export proceeds from these loans remaining unpaid for 2-3 years.
“If a satisfactory response is not received from the companies, it should be assumed that the money has been laundered. Both the central bank and Janata Bank should be held accountable for this,” he added.
The central bank created the Export Development Fund (EDF) in 1989 to use foreign exchange reserves to lend exporters cheap money to purchase raw commodities. The EDF’s size was US $ 3.5 billion after the Covid-19 epidemic until April 2020, at which point it was gradually increased to US $ 7 billion.
But in response to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) demand for disclosure of reserves excluding the fund, the central bank started cutting back on EDF’s outstanding. The outstanding balance of the EDF was US $ 2.4 billion as of 15th July.
