Business

The scheduled banks and non-bank financial institutions continued to ignore the rural entrepreneurs disbursing only 23.86 per cent of their total sanctioned SME loans among them in the first half of this year. According to the latest Bangladesh Bank data, the banks and the NBFIs disbursed Tk 11,252.46 crore in loans to the SMEs located in ... Read more

The National Board of Revenue is going to reward 403 individual and corporate taxpayers tax cards and certificates for paying the highest income tax at national and district levels for the fiscal years of 2012-13 and 2013-14. The revenue board will hand over the tax cards, crests and certificates to the taxpayers at nine different programmes ... Read more

The government on Thursday set fresh deadlines for implementing the remaining conditions of the action plans provided by the US government and the EU Sustainability Compact to revive generalised system of preferences in the US market and to retain the duty-free access to the EU countries. At a meeting with foreign diplomats, senior officials of the ... Read more

Bangladesh Bank on Thursday asked scheduled banks to disburse fresh farm loans to farmers even if they fail to repay installments of the previous agricultural loans in the country’s 21 flood affected districts. The central bank issued a circular to managing directors and chief executive officers of all banks asking them to maintain an intensive monitoring ... Read more

In the face of strong criticism from the business community, the government on Wednesday decided to review the new Value-Added Tax and Supplementary Duty Act-2012 which are supposed to be implemented from July next year. At a seminar on the law, finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith instructed the National Board of Revenue to form a ... Read more

Tofail urges India to remove trade barriers Non-tariff barriers are the key problems for boosting Bangladesh’s export in the South Asian countries despite having duty- and quota-free access facility, a minister and business leaders said. The barriers will continue to hinder the country’s export growth in the region in future unless effective and integrated efforts ... Read more

Rmg Factory Safety Inspection 50pc of Alliance-listed units finish remediation Alliance, a platform of North American brands and buyers, on Wednesday said that remediation work at 50 per cent of garment factories it inspected had been completed at an average cost of Tk 2 crore a unit. The authorities of the garment factories conducted the remediation ... Read more

Bangladesh Bank is likely to ask scheduled banks to keep withhold their recovery of installments of farm loans from the flood-affected farmers in 17 districts for three months to six months during and after the calamity. The BB will issue a circular to managing directors and chief executive officers of all banks in two or three ... Read more

The Dhaka Stock Exchange on Wednesday decided to enlist two companies — Saif Powertec Limited and Ratanpur Steel Re-Rolling Mills Limited. The DSE made the decision at a board meeting presided over by its chairman Siddiqur Rahman Miah. The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission this year allowed the companies to raise capital from the capital market. Ratanpur

The Anti-Corruption Commission on Tuesday dropped charges against 11 government officials, including three secretaries, who had been investigated in three graft cases involving embezzlement of around Tk 395 crore. The officials include energy and mineral resources secretary Abu Bakar Siddique, also former Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation chairman, Anwarul Karim, the additional

Foreign Artistes Coming To B’desh NBR to reject proposal to set fixed income tax The National Board of Revenue has decided to reject a proposal of cultural affairs ministry for fixing tax of foreign artistes at the highest Tk 3.5 lakh on their income derived through performing in Bangladesh, officials said. They said that the revenue ... Read more

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday banned First Security and Services Limited chief executive officer Kazi Saifur Rahman from any sort of affiliation with the capital market for five years for illegal share trading and price manipulation. The commission also fined Saifur Tk 10 lakh, First Securities

Hallmark Scam Probe Fin min seeks BB opinions on JS body suggestions The finance ministry has sought opinions from Bangladesh Bank about implementation of the parliamentary standing committee’s recommendations those include giving the central bank full regulatory power in the banking sector. The standing committee on the finance ministry, after conducting an investigation into the Hallmark ... Read more

The country’s mobile phone operators and e-commerce business on Tuesday demanded equal business opportunity in the field of mobile financial service from their respective roles. The MFS in the country is at an early stage and finalising the correct approach for the service is crucial for the future, they said in a session on the ... Read more

The country is not ready for the faster data technology like long-term evolution as the proper infrastructure is yet to be developed, said speakers in a session of Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation conference in Dhaka on Tuesday. The LTE-enabled handsets are very costly and only 3 per cent mobile users currently use such high-end handsets, they said. The ... Read more

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday fined FAR Chemical Industries Limited and its issue manager, First Security Services Limited, Tk 5 lakh respectively for hiding directors’ information in the initial public offering documents. The capital market regulator made the decision in

Surcharge Imposition By Nbr Brick kilns top on list of polluting industries The National Board of Revenue is likely to put brick kilns sector on top of its list for imposing environment surcharge as the industry has been identified as the highest in terms of numbers among the sectors that pollute environment in the country, ... Read more

3-day Commonwealth telecom forum begins in Dhaka The 54th annual telecommunication forum of the Commonwealth countries started in Dhaka on Monday with a vision of ensuring technology affordability for the underprivileged population and cyber security for the users. Telecom minister Abdul Latif Siddique inaugurated the three-day Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation 2014 forum at Radison Blu Hotel in

The power and energy ministry on Monday decided to divert 58 million cubic feet of natural gas a day from three power stations to the RMG factories in Gazipur. The decision came from a meeting with state minister for power and energy Nasrul Hamid in chair after the owners of readymade garment factories on Sunday ... Read more

Shurwid Industries on its debut on Monday saw a 400-per cent or Tk 40 rise in its share prices despite having lower earning per share. Market operators termed the investors’ much attention to the newly-listed companies’ shares as irrigational and speculative. The earning per share of the company was