Bangladesh Bank has decided to set up a Tk 3,000 crore refinance scheme for the agriculture sector to deal with the financial crisis caused by Covid-19 pandemic. 

“The Tk 3,000 crore fund, named “Agriculture Sector Stimulus Re-financing Scheme (second phase)” was decided to be formed in order to ensure required soft loan for agriculture sector to make its activities more vibrant as sector has an important role to play to face the economic crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic, said the BB circular issued on Tuesday. 

It said any affected farmer can avail a loan up to over 20 per cent extra from the existing sanction limit and the highest amount of loan will be Tk 10 crore, which would be provided by a bank having agreement with the Bangladesh Bank for disbursing this credit under the agriculture and rural credit policy. 

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However, a farmer from the grass root level can avail a loan up to Tk 2 lakh without any collateral. But this loan will not be allowed to use for adjustment of the existing loan repayment.  

The interest of the loan will be highest 4 per cent for the farmers while banks will be charged 1 per cent by Bangladesh Bank to receive the loan. 

The customers covered under this policy will be eligible for receiving the loan from the fund valid for June 30, 2022.  

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The interested banks, which want to distribute loans under the scheme, must have agreement with the Bangladesh Bank while the central bank can re-fix the amount for the banks by making a time to time review of their capacity. 

The distribution banks will have to repay the loan to Bangladesh Bank within 18 months with a 6-month grace period while a customer will get 12 months to repay the loan.