Deadline for loan rescheduling extended again for rawhide traders

The central bank yesterday extended the timeframe of relaxed loan rescheduling facility for rawhide traders for the second time in order to help them stay away from the defaulted zone.

Having been announced on July 5, the initial deadline to apply for the facility was set at July 30 but seeing as many rawhide traders failed to do so within the stipulated timeframe, the central bank was forced to push the deadline to October 29.

Now though, due to the considerable number of loan defaulters among rawhide traders, the deadline has again been extended to December 30 of this year, as per a notice from Bangladesh Bank issued yesterday.

The central bank announced the relaxed facility ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, which was celebrated at the end of July, in a bid to ensure that the leather industry would have sufficient funds to collect necessary raw materials.

Traditionally, half of the country's rawhide supply is collected during the Eid festival.

Under the relaxed rescheduling facility, traders are allowed to reschedule defaulted loans that were taken in the form of working capital and demand loans after paying only 2 per cent down-payment on the outstanding loans as of June 30.

Besides, the renewed repayment tenure could be of up to six years, including a one-year grace period.

Meanwhile, clients who took term loans will be given a maximum tenure of eight years, including the one-year grace period.

Rawhide traders will have to pay back at least 15 per cent of their outstanding loans after rescheduling their non-performing loans if they want to secure further funding.