Around 1.92 million Mobile Financial Service (MFS) accounts have been opened since 4 April in the readymade garment (RMG) sector following a move of the government to provide salaries and allowances of the workers and employees through mobile banking.
The accounts have been opened through three MFS providers – bKash, Rocket and Nagad, said a media statement of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).
Out of the 1.92 million accounts, around 970,000 have been opened through bKash while 550,000 through Rocket and 400,000 through Nagad, reports news agency BSS.
Earlier, Bangladesh Bank instructed all authorities concerned to open MFS accounts for all workers and employees of export-oriented industries and factories by 20 April to facilitate providing salaries and allowances from the government’s financial package.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina announced a stimulus package of Tk 50 billion for export-oriented industries to fight the impact of coronavirus outbreak on the country’s economy.
Under the stimulus package, the central bank will provide loans without interest as per the demand of banks, but banks can take two per cent one-time service charge for bearing their administrative costs.
Export-oriented industries, which export minimum 80 per cent of its total production, will be eligible for the government-announced financial stimulus fund.
The owners or management of those industries could take loan from that fund and thus could disburse the salaries of their employees and workers for three months (April, May and June of this year).
The borrowers will get a six-month grace period, meaning that they will have to start paying the borrowed money in instalments to the government from the seventh month of receiving the money. The loan amount will be repaid in two years by 18 instalments.
If anyone does not pay the loan instalment in time, the loan will become classified as per the conventional rules and two per cent interest will have to be paid on the outstanding instalments.