Tk 1 crore or more in 1.14 lakh accounts

There are 1.14 lakh bank accounts in commercial banks having Tk 1 crore or more each as of December last year, Finance Minister AMA Muhith told parliament yesterday.

The number of such accounts was 1.8 lakh in 2014, 98,591 in 2013, 90,655 in 2012 and 78,150 in 2011, he added.  

Replying to lawmakers' queries, he said four out of 56 commercial banks in the country incurred losses in 2015.

The four are Basic Bank, Bangladesh Krishi Bank, ICB Islami Bank and National Bank of Pakistan. They incurred losses of Tk 234.82 crore, 158.93 crore, 25.62 crore and 46.85 crore respectively.

In a scripted reply, the minister said commercial banks earned Tk 22,844.75 crore operating profits in the last calendar year.

The top five banks in terms of making profit are Islami Bank (Tk 1,803 crore), Standard Chartered Bank (Tk 1,650 crore), Janata Bank (Tk 1,152 crore), HSBC Bank (Tk 1,090 crore) and Agrani Bank (Tk 1,010 crore).

Muhith said the government took several measures, including reorganising the managing board, and regular supervision by the Bangladesh Bank, to make the state-owned commercial banks a profitable venture.

The government has earned Tk 151.79 crore in revenue from the ship breaking industry at Sitakunda in the 2014-2015 financial year, he said, replying to another question.

Meanwhile, State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Tarana Halim told parliament that the government would repair or reconstruct 1,500 ICT-based post offices across the country.

"A project titled Construction of Rural Post Office having ICT facilities is now ongoing. It was undertaken in July 2011 with an aim to complete in June 2017," she told the House.

In a scripted reply, Tarana also described her ministry's plan to modernise state-run mobile company Teletalk in efforts to improve its service.