Business

Govt Savings Tools Sales drop by 8.5pc in July-Jan Sales of the national savings certificates and bonds dropped by 8.50 per cent in the first seven months of the current financial year 2013-14 compared with that in the same period of the FY13. The savings instruments worth Tk 12,701.80 crore were sold through banks, national ... Read more

The prices of green chilli, onion, potato and garlic increased on the retail market in the capital over the week ending Friday due to price hike on the wholesale markets. Traders said that the wholesalers increased the prices of onion, potato and garlic and the prices of the items increased by Tk 2-Tk 5 a ... Read more

Production at the two garment factories where Accord, the EU retailers’ platform, found severe faults, have been suspended. Structural inspectors of the Accord detected major structural faults in the building of Hazi Kujrat Ali Mollah Super Market at Pallabi in the city that housed the garment factories — Softex and Fame Sweater. After finding out the

Global food prices rose by 2.6 per cent in February in the sharpest climb since mid-2012 due to unfavourable weather, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday, with the crisis in Ukraine threatening to cause future volatility, reports Reuters. The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s price index, which measures monthly price changes for a basket of ... Read more

Revenue target down by Tk11,000cr in current fiscal year The National Board of Revenue will impose an additional tax in the form of health risk tax on tobacco products to discourage the use of tobacco while reducing corporate tax in the coming fiscal year of 2014-2015, NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain said on Thursday. It will ... Read more

Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for setting up two new non-bank financial institutions on the basis of political consideration, said officials of the central bank. The two proposed NBFIs are—CAPM Venture Capital Finance with its proposed chairman Mahmud Hossain, and Meridian Finance Investment with its

A proposed cotton import agreement between Bangladesh and Uzbekistan has been stalled over issues related to providing guarantee and pricing of products along with lack of interest of private stakeholders, officials of the commerce ministry said. They said that though the discussion for signing the agreement was going on for more than two years, till now ... Read more

Scraps plan to install devices The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is going to hire a firm for obtaining internet safety service as it has decided not to purchase and install the equipment and solution by itself, said officials concerned. The BTRC decision came after the commission in January had formed a committee to speed up the ... Read more

Sim Replacement Tax Dispute NBR asks for method by Friday to confirm SIM ownership The revenue board on Wednesday asked the telecom regulator to determine a methodology by Friday (tomorrow) on how to ensure the authenticity of ownership of disputed mobile SIMs in order to settle a dispute over SIM replacement tax worth Tk 3,062 ... Read more

The government has no plan to lift the ban on export of hilsa to ensure smooth supply of the country’s most coveted fish in local market, said commerce minister Tofail Ahmed in Dhaka on Wednesday, reports Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha. ‘How much we get from export of hilsa fish? We don’t have any immediate plan to resume hilsa ... Read more

The government’s tax collection from the Dhaka Stock Exchange increased by 3.29 per cent in February compared with the previous month due to increased share sell-offs by sponsor-directors and placement holders. The country’s prime bourse paid Tk 14.37 crore in tax in February which was Tk 13.92 crore in the previous month. Of the tax amount, the ... Read more

Nat’l Savings Tools Govt borrowing target may rise by Tk 2,000cr Borrowing target from national savings certificates for the current financial year may be revised by up to Tk 2,000 crore on the original estimate of Tk 4971 crore, with investors rushing to buy high-yielding savings instruments. Finance ministry officials who monitor government borrowing trend throughout ... Read more

Bangladesh Bank has asked scheduled banks to submit information about import of ‘controversial’ genetically modified soya bean oil as the importers are now importing the products violating the existing acts and regulations. Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association earlier applied to the commerce ministry under the Right to Information Act 2009 seeking know information

Structural Integrity Inspection Accord finds ‘serious faults’ in a factory Accord, a platform of EU retailers, has detected a garment factory, Jeans Care Ltd, in the capital with some ‘serious’ faults in its structural integrity and asked the factory authorities to shut down the unit. The review panel under the National Tripartite Committee, however, on Tuesday ... Read more

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday formed three separate committees with the task of preparing framework for establishing a clearing corporation, a derivative market and a commodity market. A BSEC news release said the committees would submit reports considering different issues related to formation of clearing corporation,

Financial analysts and businesspeople at a conference today stressed the need for investing the hard-earned remittances of Non Resident Bangladeshis in the productive sector to give a big boost to the economy. ‘Remittances are being used for purchasing flats and lands, which are not productive,’ Khadaker Ibrahim Khaled, former deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank,

Inflow drops to $9.19b in 8 months The inflow of remittance decreased to $9.19 billion in eight months of the current financial year 2013-2014 against $9.89 billion in the same period of the FY 2012-13 due to a downward trend in manpower export. According to the Bangladesh Bank data released on Monday, remittance inflow dropped by ... Read more

200 Factory Inspectors Recruitment by March deadline uncertain Recruitment of 200 additional factory inspectors by the March deadline looks uncertain as the government is yet to finalise necessary procedure including formulation of recruitment rules. Although the proposed recruitment rules got the approval of the public administration ministry on Thursday, the rules have to go through a ... Read more

Bangladesh Bank on Monday launched a software to strengthen its fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. The BB governor Atiur Rahman inaugurated the software, goAML, at the central bank headquarters in the capital while senior officials of the central bank and the chief executive officers of the scheduled banks attended the programme. Speaking on the

The Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority has fined five insurance companies Tk 4.50 lakh and warned three others due to their violation of different insurance rules, an IDRA release said. Of the companies, Padma Islami Life Insurance, Mercantile Insurance, Global Insurance, Standard Insurance and Eastern Insurance have been fined while