So yes, some interests can also be written-off due to catastrophic circumstances like the Covid-19 pandemic. But in most cases, the defaulters are usually rich individuals who can afford to pay back their debt, but simply do not or will not.
State-owned banks also write loans off
They take loans, they default and launder the money abroad. Bangladesh’s GDP was $9 billion in 1972. It is now $416 billion.
But the tax revenue from this large sum is not increasing. We have one of the lowest tax-GDP ratios in the world.
I will not play a blame game here. Our society, the government, the revenue collecting authorities and those who can pay taxes but do not, are all to be held responsible.
There are three different types of exchange rates in our country. The lowest exchange rate is for importers and the general populace. The second rate is for exporters, who receive cash incentives ranging from 1-20 percent.
As I have already said, loans can become unrecoverable due to especially hard circumstances like a pandemic, natural disaster or a global economic depression
Then there is a rate for expats who send remittances to our country as they get a 2.5 percent cash incentive. So, in some instances, launderers can just send laundered money from abroad, make their wealth appear legitimate and receive a handy cash increase in the process.
As long as such opportunities are available, defaulters and launderers will use them to increase their wealth and create problems for the rest of us. Because when borrowers default on loans and banks write those loans off, they have to increase the interest rate for other borrowers or have to decrease the interest rate for their depositors.
See, that is the problem with the media. Lees verder