A new showroom of TVS, a popular brand of two and three-wheeler vehicles, was opened on Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani in Tejgaon industrial area in Dhaka on Sunday. J Ekram Hussain, managing director of TVS Auto Bangladesh, opened the showroom, the company said in a statement. Geeteara Safiya Choudhury,
Business
Mobile banking to get a further boost
Mobile banking will get a further boost as the central bank proposes to channel all financial payments through mobile phones under stronger tie-ups between banks, cell phone operators and other service providers. The draft Regulatory Guidelines for Mobile Financial Services in Bangladesh, published on Monday, will turn every mobile phone into a digital wallet and
GP’s net profits fall as political unrest bites
Grameenphone’s net profits fell slightly in the first half of 2015, hurt by political turmoil and intense price competition. Between January and June, the country’s largest mobile operator logged in Tk 1,050 crore in net profits, down 0.94 percent year-on-year. Grameenphone’s net profits in the second quarter stood at Tk 513 core, which is a ... Read more
Intex launches smartphone in Bangladesh
Indian smartphone maker Intex Technologies launched its Aqua Power+ handset in Bangladesh recently. The smartphone is equipped with a 4,000 mAH battery, which allows 20 hours of talk time with a standby time of 500 hours, Intex said in a statement. The Aqua Power+ that has a 2 GB Ram runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop ... Read more
Tourism fair in Oct to offset past losses
A three-day international tourism fair will be held in Dhaka in October to jumpstart the sector’s peak season after the previous two ones were virtually written off due to political turmoil. The sector’s peak season starts from October and lasts until March, and in the past two years it coincided with political unrest, which put ... Read more
Transactions cross Tk 420cr
The value of the total number of daily transactions through mobile financial services (MFS) has crossed Tk 420 crore in May for the first time since the launch of the service in 2011. “After negative growth in April this good news. MFS is gaining popularity as people can send and receive money when they need ... Read more
DSE to introduce smartphone-based share trading system by June
The Dhaka Stock Exchange has planned to launch a smartphone-based share transaction system by June this year with a view to making share trading more convenient for investors, DSE officials said. The DSE management earlier had said that the bourse would launch a mobile-based trading system within April this year. The DSE on December 11 last year ... Read more
Banks to reschedule farm loans without down payment
Bangladesh Bank has asked scheduled banks to reschedule the defaulted farm loans without taking any down payment in a bid to save the farmers from the existing political unrest, said officials of the central bank. The BB issued a circular to managing directors and chief executive officers of all banks on Monday asking them to disburse ... Read more
BGB plans to enter into banking business
Moves to set up Shimanta Bank in six months Border Guard Bangladesh got the green signal from the Prime Minister’s Office to launch a commercial bank, Shimanta Bank, within six months, said officials. ‘We are advancing with all the formalities necessary to set up a bank since the prime minister gave approval in principle,’ the ... Read more
WB VP advises govt to improve business environment for pvt sector
Visiting World Bank vice president for South Asia Region Annette Dixon on Tuesday advised the government to improve the existing business environment for the private sector to become a middle income country. Dixon made the plea while talking to journalists after a meeting with Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman at the central bank headquarters in the ... Read more
Revenue collection falls Tk 2,359cr short of target in Jul-Jan
NBR to frame policy to prevent misuse of income tax rebate Revenue collection by the National Board of Revenue fell short by Tk 2,359 crore in the first seven months of the current financial year 2014-15, NBR chairman Md Nojibur Rahman said on Tuesday. At a regular news briefing at NBR headquarters in the capital, Nojibur ... Read more
FBCCI polls on May 23
The biennial election board of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry announced May 23 as the election date for 2015-17 tenure. The chairman of the election board Ali Ashraf on Tuesday announced the schedules of the FBCCI election date for the next two years’ tenure. As per the schedule,
LC cancellations rise by 25pc in H1
Cancellations of the import-related letter of credit increased by 24.94 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal year because of disagreement between importers and exporters and dull business situation in the country amid political uncertainty and unrest in the period, Bangladesh Bank officials said. The BB data released recently showed that LC cancellations ... Read more
AIMS submits plan to BSEC for MF conversion
AIMS of Bangladesh Limited has submitted an action plan to the capital market regulator for the possible conversion or windup of two close-ended mutual funds it manages as the tenure of the mutual funds will end in June 30 this year, AIMS of Bangladesh managing director Yawer Sayeed told New Age on Monday. The AIMS-managed two ... Read more
Commodity prices stay high
Prices of daily essentials including beef and mutton remained high in the capital’s kitchen markets over the week ending Friday as the ongoing blockade being enforced by the BNP-led alliance hurt the supply chain across the country. Beef was selling at Tk 340-Tk 350 a kilogram in the city’s kitchen markets on Friday while mutton was ... Read more
Dhaka stocks return to negative zone
DSE Weekly Review Dhaka stocks return to negative zone Dhaka stocks returned to the negative zone last week after a sharp rise in the previous week due to investors’ profit taking share sell-offs and scepticism about the market prospect amid fresh political tension. The key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, fell by 1.10 per cent, ... Read more
Political unrest pushes up defaulted farm loans
The defaulted loans in the agriculture sector increased by 14.42 per cent in the first seven months of this financial year despite a downward trend in farm loan disbursement in the period as farmers failed to repay their loans for not getting fair prices of their products due to a supply chain disruption amid political ... Read more
Muhith agrees to raise VAT-free turnover limit to Tk 36 lakh
Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has agreed to raise the value-added tax-free annual turnover threshold for traders to Tk 36 lakh from Tk 24 lakh, following recommendations from the VAT Act-2012 review committee, officials of the National Board of Revenue said. In a recent instruction to the revenue board, finance minister
Real estate sector suffers Tk 1,656cr in losses due to unrest, claims REHAB
Country’s real estate sector suffered losses of Tk 1,656 crore in the last 46 days due to a nonstop blockade and frequent hartals enforced by the BNP-led alliance since January 6, claimed sector leaders. The sector leaders at a press conference on Thursday demanded loan rescheduling facility for two years and waiver of interest on bank ... Read more
GSMA wants public consultation on spectrum auction guidelines
The Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), a global association of mobile phone operators, has requested the Bangladesh government to carry out a public consultation of draft guidelines on the upcoming spectrum auction, said a Grameenphone press release on Thursday. ‘Such a process [public consultation] would allow all