Government's bank lending exceeds target

The government's debt in the banking system is increasing rapidly. With three months left in the current 2025-26 fiscal year, the government has borrowed more than the target set for the entire fiscal year. This time, the target was set to borrow Tk 1 lakh 4 thousand crore from banks. However, the government has borrowed Tk 1 lakh 6 thousand 51 crore as of March 30. In total, the government's total debt balance in the banking system has reached Tk 6 lakh 56 thousand 956 crore.

The concerned said that the government sets a target for borrowing every year to meet the budget deficit. This time, despite the increase in expenditure due to various reasons including the war, revenue income has not increased in the same way. Moreover, loans are not being received as expected from foreign sources. As a result, special auctions are being called outside the regular auction calendar for treasury bills and bonds to meet the government's borrowing needs. The government took Tk 5,000 crore by calling a special auction on April 1. A special auction has been called for another Tk 5,000 crore tomorrow, April 8. As a result, it is not possible to say where the debt will end up this time. In the original budget for the last fiscal year 2024-25, the government had set a target for borrowing Tk 1,37,500 crore from the banking system. However, the revised budget set a target for borrowing Tk 99,000 crore. In the end, the government took Tk 72,372 crore.

According to Bangladesh Bank data, out of the loans taken so far in the current fiscal year, Bangladesh Bank has provided 32,193 crore taka. This has increased the government's loan balance in Bangladesh Bank to 1,30,616 crore taka. And the government has taken 73,858 crore taka from commercial banks in 9 months. This has brought the loan balance to 5,26,339 crore taka. The government's loan demand was low at the beginning of the current fiscal year. Until last October, repayments were 503 crore taka more than the government's loan from the banking system.