Business

Finds NBR, starts legal process to recover the money The country’s tax administration has demanded a total of Tk 19,594 crore from four major gas distribution companies, alleging that the companies dodged the amount in value-added tax and supplementary duty from 2009 to 2014. Officials of the National Board of Revenue told New Age that Titas ... Read more

Belgium is on course to become the new billion-dollar export market for Bangladesh in the current financial year 2014-15 riding on the moderate growth of readymade garments and frozen food products. Exports to Belgium in the first seven months of the FY15 grew by 9.01 per cent to $608.97 million against $558.59 million in the same ... Read more

BB advises to use persuasion in recovering defaulted farm loans Bangladesh Bank on Monday asked six state-run banks to give farmers relief from certificate cases by rescheduling their defaulted farm loans. The BB asked the banks not to file any fresh certificate case against farmers as the central bank gave importance on recovering the defaulted farm ... Read more

Mobile phone operator Airtel is running a WiFi service after expiry of its authorised tenure violating the telecom rules, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission officials told New Age on Monday. Airtel, however, said that the BTRC approval for the WiFi service was given to a third-party — iConnect — and the operator had no regulatory concern in ... Read more

The National Board of Revenue has sent a proposal to the finance ministry for enacting a law for imposing surcharge on mobile phone services including talk time. The board made the proposal in the past week as the law ministry in late January sent back a draft Statutory Regulatory Order imposing 1 per cent surcharge ... Read more

To advise to find alternative defaulted farm loan recovery window Bangladesh Bank will ask six state-run banks to take initiatives to decrease the certificate cases against farmers by searching alternative window to recover the defaulted farm loans as the number of unsettled certificate cases has already crossed two lakh. The BB will organise a meeting with ... Read more

TElecom Surveillance Upgrade Home asks NBR to exempt telcos from import duty The home ministry has requested the National Board of Revenue to waive any payment of tax on the import of equipment which will be used to upgrade the government’s mobile phone surveillance system, NBR officials told New Age. A letter from the home ministry’s ... Read more

HSBC published a full-page letter in British newspapers on Sunday to offer its ‘sincerest apologies’ for past practices at its Swiss private bank, which has been accused of helping clients to evade tax. Europe’s biggest bank admitted failings in compliance and controls in its Swiss operation after media reports that said it had helped wealthy customers ... Read more

A multinational gang of cyber criminals has stolen as much as $1 billion from as many as 100 financial institutions around the world in about two years, Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab said on Saturday. The company said it was working with Interpol, Europol and authorities from different countries to try to uncover more details ... Read more

The planning ministry on Sunday asked the project directors under the annual development programme to surrender the allocated funds which are likely to remain unspent by the current financial year 2014-15, officials said. The portion of total allocation which may remain unused in the FY15 will have to be surrendered to the planning ministry by March ... Read more

Dhaka stocks fell marginally in volatile trading on Sunday, the first trading session of the week, due to profit-taking share sell-offs by investors after an eight-session rise. The key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, fell by 0.21 per cent, or 10.54 points, to close at 4,831.17 points on Sunday. The market ended negative amid

Canadian high commissioner says at briefing on Showcase Canada 2015 Canadian high commissioner Benoit Pierre Laramee on Sunday expressed his concern over the ongoing political unrest in Bangladesh and said the situation would put a terrible impact on the country’s economy and business activities. The envoy was speaking at a press conference on the Showcase Canada ... Read more

Mobile Number Protability BTRC now goes for appointing third party as telcos delay The country’s telecom regulator has now decided to implement the mobile number portability service through a third-party model as the mobile phone operators have been delaying the process since January 2014. The regulator will now choose a vendor for the job and they ... Read more

The country’s tea growers have demanded duty increase on import of tea by more than 25 percentage points to protect the local producers from ‘uneven competition’ with the imported one. The Bangladesh Tea Association earlier this month placed its demand to the finance and commerce ministries and the National Board of Revenue seeking an increase of ... Read more

‘Political unrest to hit export, remittance’ Country’s business community prefers political stability and sound business environment to financial incentives in order to bring momentum in the economic activities, said the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Saturday. The chamber in the economic review for Q2 of the financial year 2014-15 said restoring confidence among the ... Read more

Turnover also increases amid lacklustre strike Dhaka stocks advanced significantly last week after a four-week fall due to support from some state-owned entities and lukewarm strike enforced by the BNP-led alliance. The key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, closed at 4,841.72 points on Thursday, adding 3.34 per cent or 156.68 points over the week. Of ... Read more

Twelve scheduled banks including eight state-run banks held 70.06 per cent of the total defaulted loans in the banking sector as of December 31, 2014 as they disbursed huge amount of loans unlawfully to their clients, said Bangladesh Bank officials. Three out of the 12 banks also failed to keep required provision against their disbursed loans ... Read more

Newly-Listed cos’ Shares BSEC finds abnormal price rise linked to margin loan facility The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission has found that the margin loan facility for buying the newly-listed companies’ shares is playing a key role in abnormal rise in the share prices of the companies, BSEC officials said. They said the commission, based on ... Read more

10 lakh people call on the Italian co to contribute $5m Italian fashion brand Benetton is facing renewed pressure to contribute to a compensation fund for victims of the Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza factory disaster in which more than 1,100 people died, reports The Guardian. Almost 1 million (10 lakh) people have signed a petition on Avaaz, ... Read more

The prices of beef and mutton went up in the capital’s kitchen markets over the week ending Friday. Traders said that the market experienced a supply shortage of cows and goats due to interrupted transportation caused by the ongoing non-stop blockade and frequent hartals (general strike) called by the BNP-led opposition alliance across the country. The prices ... Read more