The government today asked the banks that financed the embattled Beximco Group to submit information regarding the collateral kept by the group against the loans.

The directive was given at a meeting among the secretaries of some ministries and senior officials of nine banks.

At the meeting, a huge gap was found between the market values of the collateral kept by Beximco and the amount of loans it had taken.

Nine banks -- Sonali, Rupali, Janata, Agrani, IFIC, Dutch-Bangla, Global Islami, Exim and UCBL -- lent Tk 40,000 crore to Beximco's concerns.

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Of them, state-owned Janata Bank gave the highest amount, providing Tk 23,285 crore.

A good amount of the loans, including the principal and interest, has soured, said AHM Shafiquzzaman, secretary to the labour and employment ministry after the meeting.

Senior officials from the finance, commerce, labour and other ministries as well as the receiver of Beximco were present at the meeting.

Ultimately, it was seen that the value of the collaterals that Beximco Group kept with the lenders was too low to realise the loans.

For instance, the group kept 75 acres of land as collateral, but the current market price of the land is a maximum of Tk 1,200 crore, which is inadequate considering the scenario.

According to Bangladesh Bank data from November, Beximco owes nearly Tk 50,000 crore in bank loans, more than half of which has become non-performing.

So, the government sought further information from the banks to gauge what basis the loans had been given on.

The most important issue is that some banks have not conducted any audits since 2011 but continued to disburse loans to the group, Shafiquzzaman said.

He added that they had instructed banks to furnish information about the loans at a meeting of the 11-member panel of advisers tomorrow.

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At Tuesday's meeting, the advisers may take a final decision on the 16 textile and garment units of Beximco, around 40,000 workers of which were affected after the management shuttered the factories in December last year.

A few banks disbursed loans to the group based only on some documents and without assessing loan proposals, he added. Of the nine banks, a few even took inter-bank loans to provide funds to the group.

Considering the sheer volume of Beximco's debt, the government does not think it is feasible to reopen the textile and garment factories that were shuttered, Labour Adviser Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain said last week.

Currently, three factories are in operation. Since September last year, the government has disbursed Tk 223.43 crore as financial assistance to Beximco Group so that it may pay arrears to its laid-off workers.

The government is now preparing to pay salaries for January although Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed yesterday expressed his reluctance to pay the price for Beximco's misdeeds.

"Why will the government spend for a private company like Beximco Ltd for several months?" he questioned at an event organised by the American Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The government is paying the salaries for employees of the group as if they are employed by the state, he said.

Beximco, one of the most talked-about industrial giants in Bangladesh, landed in hot water following the ouster of the Awami League government in early August last year.

Banks stopped providing capital owing to the default of a huge amount of loans, alleged to have been taken by the group using the influence of its vice-chairman, Salman F Rahman, who was an influential adviser to deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Salman is now behind bars.