Business

The Centre for Policy Dialogue on Thursday said that Bangladesh would need at least another decade for graduating from the least developed countries’ category to a developing country as it lagged behind in human assets index and economic vulnerability index. ‘It will take at least a decade for graduation even if we

Govt finalises guidelines, to issue gazette notification next month The government has finalised guidelines for the sweater factories with a provision that the owners will have to pay their workers, who work under piece rate system, minimum wages during off-season. The sweater factory workers usually remain unpaid during off-season (three to four months every year) as ... Read more

Bangladesh Bank on Thursday asked scheduled banks not to open several mobile financial services accounts in favour of a single client to avoid financial crimes and anomalies. The BB issued a circular to managing directors and chief executive officers of all banks saying that from now on a client would be allowed to open only ... Read more

Active mobile phone subscribers in the country reached to 11.89 crore in October as country’s mobile operators added 5 lakh new users in the month. The latest data of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission showed that four mobile operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Teletalk — added new subscribers in the month while Airtel and Citycell witnessed

Dhaka stocks returned to a positive zone on Thursday, the last trading session of the week, but the turnover of the bourse declined to a four-month low because of investors’ cautious trading. The key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, rose by 0.33 per cent, or 15.94 points, to close at 4,772.55 points. Turnover of the burse ... Read more

Paul Polman, chief executive officer of Unilever Plc, visited Bangladesh on Wednesday and Thursday as part of his regular visit to key Unilever markets across the world, said a news release. He was accompanied by Sanjiv Mehta, executive vice-president-South Asia Cluster of Unilever. Kamran Bakr, chairman and managing director of

The consumers of medicines will have to pay an increased value added tax of around 2.4 per cent on an average from the existing 2 per cent. The National Board of Revenue on Wednesday issued an order saying that medicine manufacturers would have to deposit VAT on actual commission which they give to the retailers from ... Read more

Rush for NSCs makes govt worried The net investment in national saving certificates and bonds surpassed its annual target in just four months (July-October) 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 ... Read more

Downtrend At Stock Market BMBA defends CIB reporting proposal Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association president Tanjil Chowdhury on Wednesday said that the proposals made by the association recently were for better management of the merchant banks and not to hurt investors’ sentiment and the market. Tanjil said the proposal of bringing investors with above Tk 1 crore ... Read more

The country’s telecom regulator has decided to amend the broadband wireless access (BWA) service guideline to incorporate LTE service-related clauses for facilitating the WiMAX operators to launch the service, officials said. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission officials said that the commission last week decided to form two committees to finalise

Farm loan disbursement decreased by 5.81 per cent in the first four months of the current financial year 2014-15 compared with that in the same period of the FY14 while 13 scheduled banks disbursed agriculture loan below 10 per cent of their target. According to the Bangladesh Bank data released on Tuesday, farm loan disbursement by ... Read more

The readymade garment exporters are going to hold a three-day apparel summit in Dhaka in December 7–9 to find ways to increase export earnings to $50 billion by 2021, coinciding the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence. ‘The first-ever apparel summit, which will replace the traditional trade exposition BATEXPO, will be helpful to dig out the ... Read more

CIB Reports For Stock Loan BSEC unlikely to consider merchant bankers’ proposal The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission is unlikely to consider a Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association proposal to include Credit Information Bureau reporting for margin account holders. The BMBA has made the proposal to include margin account holders with above Tk 1 crore under CIB ... Read more

Aduit Objection BTRC chief criticises CAG for saying telecom regulator top wrongdoer The telecom regulator on Tuesday criticised the Comptroller and Auditor General for saying that the BTRC had the highest financial irregularities among the government agencies. ‘The CAG might have his own reasons, but the way he interpreted that the BTRC had highest financial ... Read more

BTRC tops the list of wrongdoers The Comptroller and Auditor General on Monday disclosed 17 audit reports involving financial irregularities of Tk 6,195 crore where Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission topped the wrongdoing government agencies and ministries. The reports were submitted to the president and to the Public Accounts Committee of parliament for their consideration.

Money laundering suspicion persists amid rising machinery import The country’s overall imports increased by 11.01 per cent in October of this year against a 8.60-per cent growth in the corresponding month of last year due mainly to higher import of capital machinery, rice and chemical fertilisers.BB officials and experts suspected that money laundering might have ... Read more

Dhaka stocks declined for the third trading session on Monday due to panic selling following a media report that the Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association requested the BSEC to bring the investors having above Tk 1 crore in margin loan under the CIB reporting to facilitate recovery of the margin loans. The key index of Dhaka Stock ... Read more

Sovereign Bond JP Morgan also keen to become issue manager JP Morgan, a US-based investment bank, has showed interest to become issue manager for raising funds for Bangladesh from the international money market, officials said. Some international banks have started lobbying for the same as the government planned to issue sovereign bonds to raise finance ... Read more

Mobile phone operator Robi’s net profit declined by 9 per cent to Tk 130 crore in the third quarter of 2014 compared with the same period of the previous year because of higher operational expenses for 3G rollout, said officials on Monday. In Q3 of 2013 the net profit of the company was Tk 140 crore. ... Read more

Workplace Death, Injury Legal entitlement to compensation not ensured despite govt pledge The government has failed to ensure in stipulated time a legal entitlement to compensation for workers in case of death and injury in workplace incident though it is a commitment under the National Action Plan. Labour rights groups alleged that the government and factory ... Read more