Business

The government in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation has taken a move to formulate an inspection policy for the factories and establishments to upgrade the current traditional inspection system to an international standard. The policy will ensure modern, effective and prevention-oriented labour inspection and occupational safety and

The overall point-to-point inflation increased by 0.04 percentage points to 7.48 per cent in March after one month amid a hike in food items for the second month. The food inflation rose by 0.13 percentage point to 8.96 per cent in March which rose by 0.03 percentage points to 8.84 per cent in February.

Finance minister AMA Muhith on Sunday said inflation would be targeted at 6 per cent in the new fiscal year that will begin from next July. The projected inflation will be 6 per cent in 2014-15, he said during a meeting with the representatives of the non-government organisations

The government’s tax collection from the Dhaka Stock Exchange dropped by 25 per cent in March compared with the previous month due to fall in turnover followed by institutional investors’ less participation on the trading floor. In March, the country’s prime bourse paid Tk 10.74 crore in tax which was Tk 14.37 crore in the previous ... Read more

Factory Inspection Production at 4 risky Ctg units suspended Authorities suspended production at four garment factories in the Chittagong port city on Saturday following the detection of ‘serious structural flaws’ in a five-storey building, which housed the factories, by European retailers’ inspection teams. At least 2,700 workers of the factories are in danger of losing their ... Read more

Let taxpayers know how their money being used, say experts Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman on Saturday said that the rich and companies usually evaded Tk 20,000-Tk 25,000 crore in taxes every year and most of the large companies in the country were accused of evading taxes. At a seminar on ‘unveiling tax, tackling poverty ... Read more

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission has decided that it will allow companies to issue cash dividend before get listed with the stock exchanges once they get approval for their initial public offerings, said high officials of the BSEC. As per a condition under the BSEC’s special power, no company is allowed to issue any short ... Read more

Biman Bangladesh Airlines has sought exemption to the National Board of Revenue from paying minimum income tax for ensuring existence of the state-owned company in stiff international competition, Biman officials said. They said that Biman sought the exemption as a support from the revenue board for its survival as the national flag carrier already became

Dhaka stocks returned to positive zone last week after declining for the last five weeks with significant rising turnover riding on better quarterly earning expectations of large capitalised company shares and bargain hunting. The key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, increased to 4,621.23 points over the week, adding 2.51 per cent or 113.17 points.

Financial Year 2013-14 Remittance inflow from 11 countries dips in 8 months Remittance inflow from 11 countries significantly decreased in the first eight months of fiscal year 2013-14 compared with that of the corresponding period in FY13. Downward trend in manpower export was the prime cause of declining inward remittance from those countries in recent ... Read more

International Labour Organisation director-general Guy Ryder has called for action to avoid repetition of incidents like Rana Plaza tragedy. ‘Rana Plaza is a call for global action on decent working conditions,’ he said at a high-level meeting on Thursday in Copenhagen on garment and textiles production in Bangladesh. The Rana Plaza building collapse, in April 2013,

Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, the EU retailers’ platform, has found structural flaws in six more garment factories in Dhaka and Chittagong and suggested immediate evacuation of the units. Flowing the recommendation, a review committee comprising representatives from the government, the Accord, the Alliance, BUET, BGMEA and BKMEA,

Fin min issued guarantee worth $ 3.5b last year The finance ministry issued sovereign guarantee worth $3.5 billion against non-concessional loans for about a dozen and a half large infrastructure projects and state purchases until December 2013, senior ministry officials said. Another large amount of $2.5 billion in state guarantees is expected to be issued this ... Read more

The Dhaka Stock Exchange on Thursday said that the bourse stopped making public the draft IPO prospectuses of companies on verbal instruction of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission. Replying to a question why the bourse stopped publishing draft IPO prospectus, DSE managing director Swapan Kumar Bala made the comment at a press

Pre-Budget Meeting Fy 2014-15 Demands for tax, duty benefits galore Like previous years, most of the stakeholders from private sectors who attended the pre-budget discussions with the National Board of Revenue on Thursday sought tax and duty benefits in the coming national budget for the year 2014-15. Though the revenue board organises the meetings to get ... Read more

The government on Thursday approved a proposal for setting up three information technology villages in Dhaka and Rajshahi and a hi-tech park in Sylhet, officials said. The cabinet committee on economic affairs gave nod to the proposals by ICT division to set up an IT village at Karail in the capital, two in Rajshaihi and

Finance minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday said the growth of the country’s gross domestic product would be projected at 7.3 per cent for the upcoming fiscal year. In the outgoing fiscal year, the revised GDP growth is 6.5 per cent, he told reporters after a meeting of the national coordination council on the country’s

The inflow of remittance decreased to US$ 10.47 billion in nine months of the current financial year 2013-14 against US$ 11.12 billion in the same period of FY 2012-13 although the remittance posted the highest growth in March in the last 14 months. According to the Bangladesh Bank data released on Monday, remittance inflow dropped by ... Read more

Alleges Muhith Finance minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday said the Bangladesh Bank misrepresented the fact about its autonomous status to the International Monetary Fund. He told this to reporters after a meeting with a visiting IMF mission at his secretariat office. He said he had no idea why the BB officials lied to

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has launched a drive to check the sales of pre-activated SIM cards of the mobile phone companies operating in the country, said officials. The sales of pre-activated subscriber identification module cards are rampant as retailers in collusion with the mobile operators selling such SIM cards, violating BTRC rule,