DHAKA, Sept 12, 2024 (BSS) – Adviser for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Syeda Rizwana Hasan today said Bangladesh Bank will formulate a roadmap to get back the public money deposited at different private banks.

“The meeting of advisers’ council today decided that the Finance Ministry will ask the Bangladesh Bank to formulate a roadmap to get back the public money deposited, by different ministries, at different private banks,” she told a press briefing here.

The press briefing was held at Foreign Service Academy after the meeting of the council of advisers.

Rizwna said the central bank will prepare the roadmap in consultation with the ministries and the private banks. A meeting will be held to this end soon, she added.     

About the public money deposited at private banks, the adviser said different ministries of the government have some money and they keep those at banks as fixed deposit. With this income, the government takes projects, she said.

Rizwana said the ousted government allocated Taka 3,951 crore to Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) of the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry and the authorities concerned deposited some money from the fund to the then Farmers’ Bank (now Padma Bank).

The amount deposited at the bank now stands at over Taka 873,81,65,853 with interest but Padma Bank is not paying back the money despite repeated claims, she said.

The bank authorities are renewing the FDR (Fixed Deposit Receipt) in every year without consultation with the ministry, he added.

The adviser said now the bank is saying that they could not pay back the money before 2038, which depicts the vulnerable state of the country’s banking sector.

She said the government will also want to know why the ministries deposited the public money at the private banks.

Replying to a question, Rizwana said as the spokesperson of the ousted government, Sheikh Hasina must face trial in interest of justice.

Labour and Employment Adviser Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain and Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam also spoke at the press briefing.