Business

BB Circular On Money Launbering, Terror Financing Banks to monitor accounts of head of state, top officials, politicians Bangladesh Bank on Sunday asked scheduled banks to monitor the bank accounts of head of state, politicians and influential persons on regular basis to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. The BB issued a master circular in line ... Read more

Recapitalisation Fund For Scam-Hit State-Owned Banks BASIC to get Tk 790cr, Sonali Tk 710cr this week The finance ministry is set to inject Tk 1,500 crore into the two state-owned commercial banks—Sonali and BASIC—soon to shore them up from capital crunch and keep them afloat. The recapitalisation fund would be released this week, a senior official ... Read more

Safta Trade Liberalisation B’desh cuts customs duty on 4,610 items for ’13, ’14 The government has cut the customs duties on 4,610 products for 2013 and 2014 calendar years for trade under the South Asian Free Trade Area, officials of the National Board Revenue said. They said that the revenue board on December 17 issued a ... Read more

ADB to lend $250m for the programme The government plans to embark on an ‘inclusive capital market reform programme’ with participation of pension and provident funds and introduction of Islamic bonds to energise the ailing stock business. Six broad areas of policy interventions are the salient features in the planned reforms under an ADB-financed programme, a ... Read more

SOF to be used to reach telecom facilities to disadvantaged people The government has finalised the rules for social obligation fund, an amount of Tk 500 crore contributed by the telecom operators, with a provision to form an 11-member committee to manage and utilise the money. The SOF will be used to reach the telecommunication facilities ... Read more

Defaulted loans in the country’s agriculture sector stood at Tk 5,854.38 crore as of November 30, 2014 which accounted for 19.55 per cent of the total loans disbursed (Tk 29,945.44 crore) in the sector. The farm sector defaulted loans accounted for 18.22 per cent of the total loans (Tk 34,632.82 crore) disbursed in the sector as ... Read more

The prices of chicken and mutton shot up in the city’s kitchen markets over the week ending Friday as their demand increased due to rise in social and year-end recreational programmes, traders said. The price of broiler increased sharply to Tk 145-155 a kg on Friday while it was retailed at Tk 115-Tk 120 a kg ... Read more

The finance ministry has approved the commerce ministry’s proposal to collect value-added tax on edible oil at only one stage of supply chain of the product to reduce hassle businesses face in paying VAT at different stages, officials said. The facility may be given for one and a half years upto June 2016, they said. Officials said ... Read more

The net investment in national saving certificates and bonds surpassed Tk 10,500 crore in just five months (July-November) of this financial year 2014-15 as clients continued to invest heavily in the NSCs due to low bank deposit rates and sluggish business climate. According to the Directorate of National Savings data

Likely to request BSEC to review the decision Trading right entitlement certificate holders of the Dhaka Stock Exchange are likely to request the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission to review charge hike on them. DSE sources said the TREC holders were dejected by the increase of charges on them after the demutualisation of the bourse on ... Read more

Revenue earnings by the National Board of Revenue fell short of target by Tk 1,438 crore in the first five months of the current financial year 2014-15 mainly because of failure in collection in value-added tax, officials said. Though the customs and income tax wings of the NBR achieved its respective revenue collection target in July-November ... Read more

Disbursement of foreign loans and grants increased slightly in the first five months of the current fiscal year of 2014-2015 while the commitments made by international lenders and development partners dropped significantly in the period, officials of the Economic Relations Division said. They said that the disbursement increased by $15.46 million

DCCI urges government The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday urged the government to take measures to restore investment-friendly environment for domestic and foreign investors in the country. The newly-elected president of the DCCI, Hossain Khaled, along with its board members made the request at a media meet held at the trade body’s office ... Read more

The National Board of Revenue has asked the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission to submit advance income tax for the year 2015-2016 as per the government’s budget measures for the current fiscal year. The government in the budget for the current fiscal year imposed 25 per cent tax on income of 29 autonomous authorities including two ... Read more

Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday said the government for the first time would issue Islamic investment bonds with tenure of three and six months from January 1. The BB issued a circular to managing directors and chief executive officers of all scheduled banks and non-bank financial institutions saying that only Shariah-based

Dhaka stocks dipped for the second trading session on Wednesday, the last trading session of the week, with declined turnover as investors opted to go slow amid rise in political tension. The key index of the bourse, DSEX, finished at 4,823.57 points, shedding 0.31 per cent or 15.06 points on the day. Major political party BNP’s ... Read more

Bangladesh Bank on Monday issued guidelines for the corporate social responsibility with a provision that banks and non-bank financial institutions would face punitive measures if they allocate CSR fund to assist any act of militancy and terrorism and in favour of any entity connected with their directors and management members. The BB issued a circular and ... Read more

Indicative Price Discovery Identical quotation for ACME share by most investors raises syndication suspicion Thirty seven out of the 42 participating institutional investors have submitted identical price quotation (Tk 80) for indicative price discovery of ACME Laboratories under the book building method for initial public offering, raising suspicion of price syndication. The rest five institutional ... Read more

12 Crore Mobile Users Telcos say voice market not yet saturated Country’s mobile phone operators still eye growth opportunities in the voice market despite the fact that the active mobile subscribers in the country have neared 12 crore in a country of 16 crore population. Officials of the mobile phone companies said although the active users ... Read more

Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has sought opinion from the National Board of Revenue on giving tax exemption to the small depositors having less than Tk 5 lakh deposits in banks. Muhith on November 18 asked the revenue board to give its opinion on a proposal to waive the small depositors from paying tax at ... Read more