The Bangladesh Bank (BB) today extended the deadline for shipbuilders to reschedule their defaulted loans by one month through a down payment of 2.5 percent.

The central bank said shipbuilders would have to apply for the rescheduling of their loans within December 31.

In September, it granted two and a half months for borrowers in the shipbuilding sector to reschedule their loans.

This is the third time since June that the BB has granted more time for shipbuilders to regularise their loans.

It first offered rescheduling the loans for a period of 10 years, which includes a two-year grace period.

In a circular yesterday, the central bank said a good number of borrowers could not take advantage of the benefit for various reasons.

Since they could not apply for rescheduling, it extended the deadline until December 31 this year.

As of December 2022, the amount of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the shipbuilding and ship-breaking industry stood at Tk 4,760 crore out of a total of roughly Tk 21,220 crore in outstanding loans, according to the banking regulator's Financial Stability Report.

The ratio of NPLs in the sector was 3.95 percent of the total defaulted loans in the country.