Business

Dhaka stocks declined sharply on Tuesday, third trading session in a row, as investors turned shaky apprehending further fall in the market following a Bangladesh Bank move against the banks which have increased their capital market investment beyond the allowable limit. The key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, declined to 4,567.04 points,

A European Union ban on import of Indian mangoes, including the famed Alphonsos, from tomorrow and a resultant glut in supply is pushing down prices in the local market, reports Times of India. Although Indian consumers are happy over the falling price, the country’s farmers and exporters criticised the European ban and appealed to Brussels to ... Read more

The government is planning to invest US$ 1.6 billion to train and employ 1.5 million workers to meet the shortage of skilled labour force in the country’s burgeoning manufacturing sector, officials said. The programme is likely to start from the next fiscal year and will continue for 10 years. Asian Development Bank and Switzerland would provide 85 ... Read more

BSEC body suggests developing infrastructure The introduction of a commodity market by the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission will take time as a BSEC committee has suggested that the regulator should develop proper infrastructure before the launch of the market on which commodities are bought and sold for future delivery. The committee in a recent study ... Read more

The National Board of Revenue has exempted the international oil companies from paying value-added tax on import of services mainly consultancy services for exploration and production of oil and gas, NBR officials said. They said the facility was offered to facilitate the exploration and production activities by the IOCs in the country in line with the

National Internet Exchange to cut int’l charges for ISPs The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has recently sought telecom ministry approval for establishing National Internet Exchange to route the local internet traffic within the country. NIX, a consortium of two or more internet service providers, will be a passing point of internet traffic within the country. Two companies, ... Read more

The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Monday requested the visiting delegation of Belarus for giving on-arrival visas to Bangladeshi businesses in their country. At the second Bangladesh-Belarus Business Council Meeting, the FBCCI said that on-arrival visa facility would help expand bilateral trade and investment.

Islamic Development Bank president Ahmad Mohamed Ali on Monday said that there was no scope of providing terrorist financing through the Islamic banks. It is a wrong conception that more scopes are available to finance terrorism through the Islamic banks, he said. The IDB president made the comments

Scheduled banks and non-bank financial institutions failed to fulfil their target of SME loan disbursement in the first quarter of this year due to political and business uncertainty, said officials of Bangladesh Bank. According to the BB data released on Monday, the banks and the NBFIs disbursed 23.77 per cent SME loan amounting to Tk 21,053.41 ... Read more

Dhaka stocks declined for the second trading session on Monday as investors were anticipating further corrections in share prices after a six-trading session rise. Market operators said speculation that the war crimes tribunals might pronounce their verdicts against some war crimes accused soon made investors

There will be no supplementary duty and regulatory duty on import of products, except 147 items, from July 1, 2015, said National Board of Revenue chairman Ghulam Hussain on Sunday. He advised the entrepreneurs of domestic industries to be prepared for a new duty structure in which local industries would get no protection from imported goods. ‘There

Assistant United States Trade Representative Mike Delaney on Sunday said that the anti-trade union actions of some of the garment factory owners were affecting the international reputation of Bangladesh’s RMG sector. ‘It may be that the factory owners who are not willing to work with the unions are a minority, but that should be no defence

Finance minister AMA Muhith on Sunday said there was no benefit by allocating budgetary fund for the public sector jute mills because of falling demand of jute in the global market. He said no allocation would be kept in the budget for 2015-16 for any new school under the monthly payment order that has been destroying ... Read more

Economists at a pre-budget discussion on Saturday urged the government to prepare a realistic budget with more focus on employment generation schemes, education and health. They also suggested the government that it should enhance direct tax and reduce dependency on borrowings from the local sources to meet budget deficit.

Foreign loans for the social safety net projects are likely to fall in the new fiscal year as the lenders are showing more interest in the infrastructure and transport sector deals. The Economic Relations Division officials said they were expecting to strike deals worth only US$ 71.4 million with the lenders on the social protection ... Read more

The premium earning of life insurance companies decreased by Tk 43.13 crore in 2013 compared with the previous year. The life insurance companies in 2103 registered premium earning of Tk 6,539.87 crore compared with Tk 6,583 crore in 2012. Experts in the insurance sectors said that the premium earning of the existing life insurance companies declined last ... Read more

Unnayan Onneshan, an independent think-tank, has said declining trend in the inflow of remittance might put adverse impact on rural economy, causing increase in poverty. The rate of remittance inflow declined by 6.93 per cent during the period of July-February of the current financial year 2013-14 from the corresponding period

The defaulted loans in the agriculture sector increased by 44.85 per cent as of March 31, 2014 from that of the same month in 2013 as the farmers failed to repay their loans for not getting fair prices of their products due to a supply chain disruption during the recent political unrest. According to latest Bangladesh ... Read more

The prices of edible oil and onion went up in the city’s kitchen market over the week ending Friday due to supply shortage. Retailers said that the prices of edible oil increased a bit due to soaring prices in wholesale market in last few days and the prices of onion increased over the week with the ... Read more

Standard and Poor’s on Friday downgraded its rating of Russia’s ability to repay debt as alarm grew over the effects of the Ukraine crisis on the economy amid increased capital flight and slumping growth. Russia’s central bank also hiked interest rates by half a percentage point in a move aimed at curbing inflation which could also ... Read more