Business

Income Tax Fair NBR bags Tk 475cr on 2nd day amid late-hour rush The National Board of Revenue collected Tk 475.39 crore in income tax on Wednesday, the second day of the weeklong tax fair across the country, with 31,044 people submitting their tax returns on the day. NBR officials said although the turnout was low ... Read more

Sme Info Sending To India Some of BB officials trying to save BDRAL recognition A section of Bangladesh Bank officials is trying to save the central bank’s recognition given to Bangladesh Development Ratting Agency Ltd although the central bank earlier took step to cancel the recognition due to alleged data trafficking to India by the ... Read more

Businesses say at International Investors’ Forum Investment policy based on colonial legacy, poor infrastructure, shortage of gas and electricity are the key challenges to attracting foreign direct investment in the country, experts said at a seminar on Wednesday. They also said that there were some regulatory barriers to attracting FDI and the government should address the ... Read more

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday urged foreign investors to take advantage offered by Bangladesh to expand their businesses. ‘The government of Bangladesh is committed to stay on its upward course to attract FDI and maintain investment-friendly environment for our economic development,’ she said. The prime minister was inaugurating International

The country posted a trade surplus of $195 million in July, for the first time in the last 14-15 years, but worries remained over the state of business situation as both export earnings and import payments dipped in the month, said Bangladesh Bank officials and economists. The export earnings stood at $2.96 billion in July, ... Read more

The country’s top taxpayers will be given the Commercially Important Person status for their contribution to the government exchequer, said commerce minister Tofail Ahmed on Tuesday. ‘I will talk to the finance minister [AMA Muhith] about giving CIP status to the top taxpayers and take necessary steps accordingly,’ said Tofail at the opening of the

Export Dev Fund BB doubles borrowing cap for plastic goods exporters Member mills of Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association will now be able to borrow up to $1 million a year instead of $5,00,000 from $1.5-billion export development fund of Bangladesh Bank, the central bank announced on Tuesday. The BB issued a circular ... Read more

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected a proposal of First Security Islam Bank Limited to issue rights share to raise Tk 200 crore as the bank failed to comply with rules related to defaulted loans. A BSEC notice posted on Dhaka Stock Exchange on Tuesday said, ‘The BSEC is not in a position to ... Read more

The country’s leading mobile operator Grameenphone and handset brand Symphony on Tuesday launched a low-cost smartphone with Firefox operating system in partnership with Mozilla, an organisation best known for the Firefox web browser. The new handset, Symphony GoFox F15, will cost Tk 4,650

Turnover crosses Tk 800cr mark again Dhaka stocks rebounded on Tuesday with the turnover crossing Tk 800-crore mark again in just one-day gap due to investors’ optimistic share purchasing expecting better returns. The key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, rose by 1.05 per cent, or 49.48 points, to close at 4,759.39 points on ... Read more

The government on Monday withdrew special tax benefits on income of fish farms following the controversy surrounding wide-spread irregularities in availing the facility. The National Board of Revenue imposed tax at regular rate of 35 per cent on fish farms under company category scrapping the provision of only 3 per cent tax

The cabinet on Monday endorsed a proposal for imposing one per cent surcharge on cell phone talk-time and other services to raise funds for development activities in the country’s health and education sectors. The internal resources division placed the proposal at the weekly cabinet meeting with the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, in the chair. ‘National Board of ... Read more

NBR rewards 402 top taxpayers Some of the country’s top taxpayers on Monday blamed officials of the revenue board for harassment and creating tax payment complexity. They alleged that officials of the National Board of Revenue were reluctant to do their work properly and unnecessarily put burden on the existing taxpayers. They came up with their allegation ... Read more

The World Bank has identified confrontational politics and bureaucratic red-tape as key challenges for Bangladesh to speed up growth and promote itself as a middle-income country by the early next decade. Sharing views with the newsmen at the WB office at Agargoan on Monday, WB country director Johannes Zutt said divisive and confrontational politics could bring ... Read more

Traders of the virtual currency have to face legal action Bangladesh Bank on Monday warned the country’s financial institutions, business organisations and traders not to conduct their business by using e-currency ‘Bitcoin’ as such type of dealing is not legal. Bitcoin is an online-based virtual currency. The central bank said that if anyone uses Bitcoin in the ... Read more

High-priced illegal mobile handsets of many international brands have flooded the city markets, which are already dominated by low-priced illegal sets, depriving the government of huge revenue income. Shops located in the city’s different areas like Bashundhara Shopping Mall, Dhaka Stadium Market, Motaleb Plaza and Eastern Plaza are selling handsets of brands like Apple, Samsung,

Bangladesh Bank on Sunday asked financial organisations including brokerage houses to strictly follow anti-money laundering measures like submitting of suspected transaction reports to the BB. The central bank gave the direction at a regulators’ meeting at the BB headquarters in the capital. BB governor Atiur Rahman presided by the meeting. BB deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury, after

The government is set to finalise shortly the incentives it would offer to foreigners for luring foreign direct investment in the proposed special economic zones, officials said. The Prime Minister’s Office has asked finance minister AMA Muhith to prepare the incentives for the proposed special economic zones immediately after both the

The government has started to make public the inspection reports of the readymade garment factories assessed by the government and global retailers’ platforms by publishing the reports of 185 RMG units on the web site of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments. Making the inspection reports public is one of the key

Experts warn the move may provoke aggressive trading The Chittagong Stock Exchange has declared incentives for investors based on their turnover through the bourse’s internet trading service that may provoke aggressive trading. Capital market experts said that the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission should examine the legal aspect of the matter. The CSE last week announced