State-run Janata Bank has been partly exempted from the Bank Companies Act-1991 so that it can lend money to Beximco Group, a loan defaulter. 

The conglomerate needs the money to pay the employees of Beximco Industrial Park, said Mohammad Shahriar Siddiqui, assistant spokesperson of the Bangladesh Bank.

The BB issued a notification on December 12, stating that the Janata Bank had been exempted from part of sections 26 and 27 of the act.

As per the sections, Beximco, the largest borrower from Janata Bank, is not eligible to get more loans because it's a defaulter and it has borrowed over 25 percent of Janata's capital.

Beximco has so far borrowed Tk 23,328 crore from the Janata, and had not paid back most of the sum.

The amount borrowed by Beximco is 410 percent of its own capital, according to records.

The company's Vice-Chairman Salman F Rahman, a former adviser to ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, is currently in jail.

Mazibur Rahman, managing director of Janata Bank, said his bank would lend the conglomerate Tk180 crore.

On December 5, Janata Bank requested the BB's permission to lend money to Beximco.

Janata mentioned that its clients had defaulted on 61 percent of the loans, and the bank was facing a liquidity crisis.

Of the total sum lent by Janata, over 45 percent was taken by loan defaulters Beximco Group, S Alam Group, AnonTex Group, Crescent Group and Thermex Group.

As of September, defaulted loans at the bank was Tk 60,489 crore, the highest in Bangladesh, according to central bank data.

This amount represents 61 percent of the bank's total disbursed loans and 21.22 percent of the sector's total non-performing loans of Tk 2,84,977 crore.

The bank recently requested Tk 20,000 crore from the interim government and the central bank to overcome its crisis, maintain a normal cash flow, and protect depositor confidence.

The decision to let Janata lend money to Beximco was made on November 28 at a meeting with Labour Adviser Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain in the chair.