The finance minister, AMA Muhith on Thursday hoped that PayPal, a global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers through the Internet, will be introduced in the country by the current month to facilitate those engaged in outsourcing.
‘I’ve already talked with the Bangladesh Bank governor on PayPal system and he had informed me that it would be possible to introduce the system by June, but now by this month (July),’ Muhith said.
He was talking to the reporters after holding a session with the deputy commissioners and divisional commissioners on the finance ministry on the last day of the three-day DC Conference at the Cabinet Division Thursday afternoon.
The finance minister said that necessary arrangements on PayPal system have already been completed and once the system is introduced in the country, the individuals involved in outsourcing would not get any lesser amount as they now usually get $ 500-$ 1000.
Regarding the demand of the deputy commissioners for allocating fund for tackling any emergency, Muhith said a fund is already there for tackling emergency or disaster, but it is yet to get activated. ‘Once it is activated, the DCs have been given power to use this fund automatically.’
Referring to the demand of changing the budget year from the existing July-June, he ruled out the possibility, saying: ‘I’ve said this earlier on many occasions that the budget year of July-June that we’ ve is the best for our country, perhaps May-April would be very much difficult.’
The finance minister also said that many of the deputy commissioners raised the issue that although the government’s agriculture credit disbursement programme is good, but the private banks are not properly disbursing those, thus creating some problems.
He replied in the negative when asked whether the deputy commissioners expressed any concern about the Hall-Mark scam, Destiny scam and Padma Bridge Project issue.
PM’s economic affairs adviser Moshiur Rahman, finance secretary Fazle Kabir, Internal Resources Division secretary and NBR chairman M Ghulam Hossain, among others, attended the meeting.
PayPal is an acquirer, performing payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee. It may also charge a fee for receiving money, proportional to the amount received.
The fees depend on the currency used, the payment option used, the country of the sender, the country of the recipient, the amount sent and the recipient’s account type. In addition, eBay purchases made by credit card through PayPal may incur extra fees if the buyer and seller use different currencies.
-With New Age input
