The Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Sunday declared a Tk 1,000 crore refinancing scheme to tempt people back into the cinema halls, which have fallen out of favour with the emergence of cable television and streaming services.
The development comes after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council on August 26 last year directed the authorities concerned to give loans to cinema hall owners to resume movie theatres that had been shuttered and also for renovating the existing halls and/or build new ones.
Subsequently, at the board meeting on January 26, the refinance scheme got the go-ahead from the BB. Yesterday, the guidelines for the fund were released.
The scheme will allow hall owners to get long-term loans at a low interest rate for renovation and modernisation of their structures.
As per the declaration, the cinema hall owners in metropolitan areas will get loans from the fund at 5 per cent interest and those outside of the metropolitan areas at 4.5 per cent interest. The interest rate on long-term loans hover around the 9 per cent-mark.
Each borrower will be able to get a maximum of Tk 5 crore against a single cinema hall.
The loans can be availed for renovating existing cinema halls that are dilapidated as well as for purchasing relevant equipment/machinery and other theatre-related expenditure.
The borrowers would get eight years to repay the loans, including a year's grace period. They will also be able to repay their equated instalments once every three months.
However, the borrowers will be discouraged from using the refinance scheme for repaying any liabilities stemming from any previous loans or bad investments.
If the central bank finds the refinance funds are being used for any other purpose, then a one-time recovery payment of that specific amount along with an additional 2 per cent of the amount as interest will be levied.
Initially, Tk 500 crore will be disbursed from the scheme. After successful disbursement of the amount, the remaining Tk 500 crore will also be disbursed.
Banks that sign up for disbursing the scheme will get the fund from the central bank at only 1.5 per cent interest rate.
The interested banks, as well as hall owners willing to borrow, will have to apply to the central bank within March 31 next year to get the fund from the scheme.
The lending banks will ensure the utilisation of the money disbursed under this scheme.
