Finance Minister AMA Muhith said Wednesday construction work on the Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal (LNG) measuring 500 million cubic feet would be completed within next two years.
"All the related tenders have been issued and the government has received different offers including the government-to-government one," the minister said at a meeting with a delegation of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), Dhaka at his office.
On construction of the LNG terminal the entire Chittagong region would be benefited as the region was facing a severe gas crisis, the minister said in response to a set of demands put forward by the chamber leaders.
MCCI President Rokia Afzal Rahman led the team that also comprised M Anis-Ud-Dowla, chairman of the Advanced Chemical Industries Ltd, AKM Rafiqul Islam, chairman of Rangamati Water Front, Habibullah N Karim, managing director of Technohaven Company Limited, Adeeb H Khan, senior partner of Rahman Rahman Huq, and Kamran T Rahman, managing director of Pubali Jute Mills Ltd.
The finance minister said the government would consider any proposal on construction of the Dhaka-Chittagong Expressway, if anyone wants to build it on the toll collection basis. "I shall make an offer to build it as a toll road project."
He said the Pangaon container terminal was ready and it would be effective within the shortest possible time.
The minister rejected a proposal of the MCCI to declare Friday as a working day. The minister argued that his government had launched several initiatives which were obstructed on the religious ground.
"Although the country loses three working days in its business dealings with western countries, it is impossible to keep office open on Friday due to the religious sentiment," Mr Muhith said.
Expressing his anger over construction work on the Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Mymensingh four-lane projects, the minister said the communication ministry had an approach to work indiscriminately.
"They (communications ministry) have an approach to do work at certain portions of different projects instead of completing the projects one by one. This philosophy should be changed," he said.
About the demand of refunding the advance income tax paid by businessmen, the minister said: "Our tax-office doesn't have the refund culture. We are going to form a permanent fund for this purpose."
The MCCI proposed framing a guideline so that all political activities including rally could be held on holidays. The minister suggested the MCCI leaders to submit the proposal in writing to the government.
The MCCI also called for averting any political unrest for the sake of economic growth, poverty reduction and employment generation. "Political parties must come out of the culture of confrontational politics and businesses must be kept out of any political programme.
MCCI leader M Anis-Ud-Dowla said due to the political unrest and hartal and barricades the image of the country was tarnished to a greater extent, which needed to be rebuilt through joint initiatives of the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Commerce and the Board of Investment.
"Comprehensive efforts must be taken by the government on image building. A world renowned professional firm should be hired for the task," the MCCI said.
Kamran T Rahman, managing director of Pubali Jute Mills Ltd, demanded imposition of supplementary duty only on imported tea, as the local tea industry was under a threat. Over 10 million kilos of tea were imported by seizing the opportunity of the faulty tax regime. So the auction price was coming down and the government was getting lower value added tax (VAT).
Mr Rahman said the jute sector was being destroyed as the law on mandatory use of jute sacks was not implemented while the Indian and Turkish currencies were devaluated against the Bangladesh taka and banks were not providing loans to the sector.
Habibullah N Karim, managing director of Technohaven Company Limited, demanded withdrawal of the condition on turnover set for local IT companies seeking to participate in bidding for any World Bank project.
He also demanded extension of the tax exemption facility for any software company on a long term basis so that foreign investors become interested to invest in Bangladesh.
He also requested the government to give directives to the state-owned banks so that they allow local software companies to serve the local banks.
The MCCI also said there was a need for maintaining a balanced monetary policy, with room for special provisions for productive sectors, such as capped short term interest rates on working capital loans or export credits.
It urged upon the government to keep its borrowing from the banking system limited within the amount projected in the current budget. "If the actual borrowing exceeds the targeted amount, it could result in crowding out the private sector and cause a liquidity problem for banks and financial institutions."
The MCCI advocated widening the tax net. "The tax forms should be further simplified and more automation should be in place to ease submission of returns and payment of tax dues and improve transparency in tax collection."
The MCCI also said the recent frauds at state-owned banks seriously damaged the investor confidence and depleted the resources of once strong banks.
"Poor regulatory practices caused the crash in our capital market from which investors are yet to recover. To restore the health of the banking sector and capital market, regulatory watchdogs should be empowered," the MCCI suggested.
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