BHBFC's authorised capital to be Tk 10b, paid up capital Tk 5b: Kamal

Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Sunday said that the authorised and paid up capital of the Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation (BHBFC) would be increased to Taka 10 billion and Taka 5 billion respectively to meet the growing demand once the concerned law in this regard is enacted, reports BSS.

"This decision has been taken in order to strike a balance between the growing demand and supply," he said.

The finance minister was addressing a function virtually this afternoon after inaugurating the payment of BHBFC's loan installments through Sonali e-services.

With this service, anyone can now pay instantly the loan installments of the corporation side by side its government fixed fees and prices of all kinds of forms. The clients of the corporation can now make payments from their own bank accounts, debit and credit cards and also from their mobile wallets through using the Sonali Bank Limited's Sonali e-service payment gateway.

Soon after the payments, the clients would be notified about their payments and current loan situation through auto generated voucher and SMS.

The finance minister said soon after its inception, both the authorized and paid up capital of the BHBFC was Taka 1.1 billion each. But, considering the growing demand for house building financing, framing of a law is at the final stage at Jatiya Sangsad and once it is framed, the authorized capital of the Corporation would rise to Taka 10 billion while the paid up capital to Taka 5 billion.

He expressed his satisfaction as the Corporation has attained unimaginable successes in all the business indicators in the last fiscal year (FY21) due to the timely steps for simplification of loan disbursement. "I hope this journey of success will continue in the coming days and thus the Corporation will brighten its image further,"

Kamal recalled that Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman restructured the BHBFC after the country's independence to provide loan support from the government level to build houses.

Following his footsteps, the finance minister said prime minister Sheikh Hasina has implemented projects for providing flats to slum dwellers at an affordable price, provided house loans to the government employees, ensured shelters for the homeless and managed house loans for people of all walks of life.

Terming the introduction of system for paying loan installments of BHBFC through online undoubtedly as a benevolent initiative, Kamal said this would further simplify the client services. "Sonali e-service method is a unique addition to the Digital Bangladesh platform."

Presided over by BHBFC managing director M Afzal Karim held at a city hotel, comptroller and auditor general Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury, finance division senior secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder, financial institutions division secretary Sheikh Mohammad Salim Ullah, SBL chairman Ziaul Hasan Siddiqui, BHBFC chairman Md Selim Uddin spoke on the occasion, among others.