Shop Owners' Association Demands Banks' Weekly Holiday Be Cut to One Day
The Bangladesh Shop Owners' Association has demanded that the weekly holiday of all commercial banks in the country be reduced to a single day. According to the organisation, when banks stay closed for several consecutive days, traders face obstacles in their financial transactions, while concerns also grow over the burden of loan interest and the safety of money kept at business establishments.
The demand was made in a press release sent to the media on Saturday (24 October). In the release, the association's president, Md Helal Uddin, said the country must not be pushed into a holiday trap in any way if traders' lives and property are to be protected from harm.
The association argues that just as essential services such as electricity, water, gas, police stations and hospitals cannot be shut down, banks too should not remain closed for more than a day. It regards banking as an essential financial service.
The organisation alleges that at any excuse or opportunity, an extra day is added to the Friday-Saturday weekly holiday. Sometimes banks are kept closed on Thursdays and Sundays in particular by opening on a scheduled holiday instead. This creates long stretches of closure that negatively affect business activity.
The release said banking is a financial service sector. Alongside the two-day weekly holiday, banks remain closed for 120 to 130 days a year when festivals such as Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Azha, Puja and Christmas and other public holidays are counted. As a result, traders are severely obstructed in their banking transactions.
The association claims traders normally pay 14 to 15 percent interest on bank loans, but because of long holidays that interest burden rises to 25 to 30 percent. This increases the cost of doing business and leaves traders financially harmed.
The shop owners' association also said it now takes no more than five to six hours to travel from one end of Bangladesh to the other. In such a situation, the organisation has questioned the very necessity of long holidays.
The press release said long holidays push traders in sectors including tourism, fuel, hotels and restaurants, as well as retail and wholesale businesses, into financial crisis. Transactions worth thousands of crores of taka take place over a five-to-seven-day holiday stretch. The association noted that keeping such a huge amount of money at home or at a business establishment is not possible.
According to the organisation, because banks stay closed for long periods, traders are forced to keep large amounts of cash with themselves. This heightens anxiety over the security of the money, and they spend day and night worrying about protecting life and property. The association also claimed that theft, robbery and snatching increase abnormally because of long holidays.
The organisation placed the demand to bring the weekly holiday of all commercial banks down to one day with the aim of keeping business transactions running, reducing the extra pressure of interest, and ensuring the safety of traders' lives and property.
It now remains to be seen what position the authorities concerned and the banking sector's policymakers take on the traders' demand. If implemented, stakeholders believe the demand would bring a major change to the country's banking calendar and the flow of business transactions.
