Business

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

Borrowing Foreign Funds Expert body discourages sovereign bonds’ floating An expert committee on issuance of Sovereign Bonds has strongly discouraged the government on borrowing costly foreign funds through sovereign bonds as the proposed tool would involve wide ranging impacts on economy. The committee, headed by SK Sur Chowdhury, president, sovereign bond transaction execution committee, also deputy ... Read more

Bangladesh Bank has taken moves to streamline monitoring on the corporate social responsibility activities of banks and financial institutions after the improper uses of fund under the CSR sparked controversies and backbites between the finance minister and the Janata Bank’s immediate past chairman last week. BB officials said that they would make it mandatory for banks ... Read more

Earnings from the US market suffer setback After a setback in last financial year the export earnings from India rebounded in the first two months of the current financial year while the export earnings from China maintained a robust growth. The export earnings from the US market, however, suffered a setback registering a negative growth in ... Read more

Local think-tank Unnayan Onneshan has said that country’s industrial development is slower than its potential because of many infrastructural bottleneck and policy failure. In the September issue of its monthly economic update, the UO on Saturday said that poor infrastructure, myopic adoption of macroeconomic policies, lack

Dhaka stocks advanced last week, third week in a row, as investors focused on heavyweight companies. Some profit-taking share sales were also observed in the first two trading sessions of the week, said market operators. The key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, finished at 4,675.92 points, adding 0.72 per cent or 33.54 points in the week. Investors’ ... Read more

The country’s 12 scheduled banks including eight state-run banks held 69.42 per cent of the total defaulted loans in the banking sector as of June 30, 2014 as they disbursed significant amount of loans unlawfully to their clients, said Bangladesh Bank officials. Five out of the 12 banks also failed to keep

The prices of red lentil and garlic went up in the city’s retail markets over the week ending Friday due to a supply shortage. Traders said that the prices of imported red lentil increased as the market witnessed a supply shortage of the item and the price of garlic increased due to a higher demand ... Read more

World food prices fell for the fifth consecutive month in August, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Thursday, reaching their lowest point since 2010 pushed by stronger-than-expected grain and cereal crops. Grains and cereals are the biggest component in FAO’s World Food Price Index, which is based on a basket of 55 ... Read more

Experts say high PE is a risk factor The price earning ratios of 40 companies have increased to above 40 due to the recent price hike of their shares, making the companies’ shares risky for investment, Dhaka Stock Exchange data showed. Under the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission rules, no merchant bank or brokerage house ... Read more

The income tax zone of Khulna will accord reception to 55 highest taxpayers of Khulna division. On the ‘National Income Tax Day-2014’ on Monday the reception will be accorded. A rally will start in the morning from the income tax office in the city marking the day. Administrator of Khulna District Council Sheikh Harun-ur-Rashid will ... Read more