In the upcoming 13th parliamentary election, no candidate can be shown as defaulter due to unpaid 'non-transactional' fees or charges. If someone is defaulter in the Credit Information Bureau (CIB) for such reasons, it must be corrected immediately.
This instruction has been given to prevent the cancellation of intentional candidacies like in the past few elections. At the same time, special instructions have been given by the central bank to prepare accurate and complete information so that no real defaulter can become candidates.
Earlier, there were cases where candidates were shown defaulters due to non-payment of such charges even though they were not actually defaulters in the national elections. It is alleged that this was done to cancel the candidacy in a harassing manner.
Instructions were given at a bankers' meeting with MDs of banks on Sunday (December 7) in the meeting room of Bangladesh Bank. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Governor Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur.
The next parliamentary election will be held in February next year, as per announcement of the chief adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus.
According to Representation of the People Order, if a person's loan is regular seven days before election date; he is eligible to run for office. If someone is found to be in default during this time, his candidacy is supposed to be canceled.
However, according to the revised RPO, even after being elected, the Election Commission can cancel the membership of a member of parliament if there is evidence of someone being in default or providing any other false information.
In several elections during the previous Awami League government, the nomination papers of opposition candidates were canceled on various pretexts such as candidates were canceled for not being in default, but for not paying credit card or any other fees. On the other hand, many people got the opportunity to vote despite being in default.
The central bank strategically provided this opportunity before the 2024 elections. Just before that unilateral election, the power to update CIB information was suddenly left in the hands of bank branch officers. Normally, to update information, one had to go through several levels from branch to central bank.
For this reason, earlier, it was done regularly in various ways including high court stay orders, loan rescheduling, and bank payment. However, in the past elections, there are allegations that many people got the opportunity to vote despite being in default without any opportunity to update information directly from the bank branch.
The central bank has ordered candidates filing nomination papers for the upcoming national parliamentary elections to quickly prepare accurate and complete information regarding loan defaults.
For this, potential candidate borrowers have been asked to update national identity card, TIN, and other identifying information Banks have been asked to pay attention to making the election-time loan database more accurate, reliable, and of high quality.
The four guidelines included include first, correct classification should be reported as per Bangladesh Bank's credit classification policy and the instructions given based on the inspection.
In addition, the reporting of all loan information of the banks in the CIB database should be ensured. In this case, if someone has 'unreported' or hidden loans, it should be in the CIB database.
Second, the customer cannot be declared in default if the non-transactional fee of the credit card is unpaid. If someone defaults in the CIB only due to unpaid non-transactional fees despite not having any transaction-related liabilities on the credit card, necessary measures should be taken to correct the classification.
Third, urgent initiatives should be taken to update the information of all concerned individuals or institutions, including borrowers, in the CIB database. In addition, the information of all interested individuals or institutions should be reported properly in the CIB database.
Fourth, appropriate measures, including the appointment of lawyers, should be taken to quickly resolve CIB-related cases filed by borrowers in the High Court due to defaulted loans. And the CIB should be informed on an urgent basis about all cases that have expired and have already been dismissed.
