The Ministry of Law's refusal to endorse the draft of the Artha Rin Adalat Ain (Money Loan Court Act) and its suggestion, instead, to amend the existing laws renders the whole exercise redundant. An unceremonious rejection, this MoL decision smacks of highhandedness at its best and undue sympathy for the scheming loan defaulters at its worst. Did the Bangladesh Bank (BB) go for such an exercise on its own without informing the MoL and ministries or divisions concerned? If the answer is 'yes', the MoL has done what it ought to do. But if the BB did not take the liberty of doing the exercise independently; rather went for it with the permission of the MoL, it could bluntly say 'no' to any such exercise by the central bank in the first place. It is most unlikely that the BB drafted the legislature without a nod from the ministry concerned.
As a joint director of the central bank told the inter-ninisterial meeting that the draft "was prepared with the assistance of several local and foreign experts". A legislative act as important as the Money Loan Court Act cannot be formulated without the concurrence of the ministry or ministries concerned. The indication is clear: the BB-drafted Act is too harsh for the loan defaulters. Sympathy for wilful and conniving loan defaulters cannot be anything but misplaced. Are not financial crimes like looting and siphoning off money abroad from banks serious enough for the punitive measures the BB prescribed? There are two dimensions to this soft-pedalling move on the part of the MoL. First, recovering money from the existing defaulters and second, the plugging the loopholes for would-be defaulters. Recovering the money already laundered is more challenging than thought. The incumbent BB governor has travelled to some of the countries where laundered money is deposited without success. Whether laundered money will at all be recovered is doubtful.
The BB's draft Act recommended setting up an Artha Rin Appellate Court empowering it with the power of suspending national identity cards and passports of loan defaulters; and declaring them ineligible for national and local government elections. It also suggested suspension of loan defaulters' right to serve as directors of any public and private company. How can these punitive measures be harsh is beyond comprehension. It seems that the bureaucracy has convinced the law ministry's adviser to be soft towards the loan defaulters. In fact, the bureaucracy is in favour of preserving some room for manoeuvring with the ulterior motive of taking advantage of the situation. Most of the miseries Bangladesh now going through have their origins in bleeding the banks of their funds and siphoning off those to foreign countries. How can anyone oppose the provisions of punishments the BB included in its draft legislature?
Instead of going for a new Act, the MoL has suggested amendments to the Artha Rin Adalat Ain, 2003. If this serves the purpose, why was not the BB told to do so earlier? Now that the interim government is busy minding the preparation for the February 12 election and also for exiting, this directive comes to no use. The loan defaulters will consider it a quiet victory for themselves. Things are most likely to go back to square one and the country's financial sector risks its disciplining and streamlining.
