Report on EPB Bill placed in Parliament

The report on the bill, titled 'Export Promotion Bureau Bill, 2015', seeking the continuation of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), was placed in Parliament on Sunday. M Tajul Islam Chowdhury, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce Ministry submitted the report. The EPB, which was set up through an ordinance during Ziaur Rahman's regime, was annulled by the court. The court in a verdict scrapped the fifth and sixth amendments to the constitution. According to the verdict, all the ordinances and laws will stand scrapped as well. 'The Export Promotion Bureau Ordinance, 1977' through which the EPB was constituted also became ineffective after the court's verdict. After scrapping the 'The Export Promotion Bureau Ordinance, 1977', the President on January 13, 2013 promulgated another Ordinance for the continuation of the EPB as Parliament was not in sitting at that time. According to the Bill, there will be a 22-member Board of Directors for the EPB with Commerce Minister as its chairman. The tenure of the Board will be of three years. There will be a chief executive in the Bureau to be appointed by the government. The head office of the Bureau will be in Dhaka, while its branches elsewhere in the country, according to UNB.