Govt's debt service liability doubles in 5 years
Rejaul Karim Byron
Government's debt service liability (DSL) has almost doubled during the last five years. It rose to Tk 68209 crore in the FY06 from Tk 36771 crore in FY02, according to the Bangladesh Economic Review 2007 published yesterday. The DSL marked around 17 percent rise over the previous fiscal's. The DSL was Tk 58592 crore in the FY05. Meanwhile, the 37 state-owned enterprises (SoEs) paid only Tk 535 crore as DSL in the FY06. However, the rate of payment has decreased as the SoEs paid Tk 661 crore in the FY05. The government for the first time published the actual amount of DSL turning down the tradition of hiding the actual figure of DSL. The finance ministry has detected that the SoEs' liabilities were much larger than what it showed. The ministry collected information on actual DSL during the last one year and found that the amount was shown much lower than the actual. However, the amount of liabilities was shown only Tk 1,731crore in the economic review of the government last year. The sources in the ministry said the real figure never came to light due to mismanagement in account handling and absence of proper documentation system. The office of the Comptroller of Auditor General (CAG) brought such irregularities to the government's notice in 2000. Donors also raised the issue on several occasions. Only three SoEs had 91 percent of the total liabilities. They are Bangladesh Power Development Board (Tk 46,925 crore), Petrobangla (Tk 7,086 crore) and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (Tk 8,128 crore). But the major DSL holder PDB did not pay any amount this fiscal. Besides, the other DSL holders are Rural Electrification Board (Tk 2,103 crore), Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (Tk 702 crore), Desco (Tk 150 crore) and RPCL (Tk 117 crore), In the industrial sector, Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation has Tk 189 crore DSL, BSFIC Tk 313 crore and BSEC 295 crore. In the banking sector, Grameen Bank has Tk 307 crore DSL, while Bangladesh Krishi Bank has Tk 114 crore such liabilities. Dhaka City Corporation has Tk 142 crore debt service liabilities and BRTC has Tk336 crore DSL to the government.
| 
