Is the emerging world still emerging?

Without Coivd-19, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the past decade would have been about 3.6 per cent-just below the 3.7 per cent experienced in 2000-09. Not bad given all the challenges, and contrary to the mood of pre-pandemic times....

FBCCI pushes for taskforce

The country's apex trade body has requested the finance minister to form a taskforce immediately for removing the existing discriminatory fiscal measures on the businesses.It proposed the body comprising private and public sector representatives to suggest simplification of the import...

Building research capacity at tertiary care private hospitals in Bangladesh

Enough is discussed about the lack or inadequacy of research conducted at the public and private universities in Bangladesh. Oddly, almost nothing is said about research at the hospitals; research may not be initiated at the Upazilla Health Complexes but...

An experiment in paperless budget!

It is a little bit surprising that only four documents related to the national budget have been made available in printed version this year. When the finance minister presented the budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22) at the national...

Challenges of fixing a corporate tax floor

World's richest nations have finally succeeded in reaching a consensus on bringing big multinational corporations under the tax net. In fact, the global corporations had long been engaged in tax avoidance through shifting their profits to tax havens. Amid the...

Govt alerted to onion import from India

Bangladesh can now avail competitive advantages through importing onion from India to offset its possible shortfall, said Bangladesh high commission in New Delhi, India. The mission's observations came in a report on 'Onion production and market situation of India', which...

Govt to procure 10 tugboats worth Tk 1.66b

The government is set to procure 10 tugboats with an estimated cost of over Tk 1.66 billion for transportation of dredgers and non-propel vessels to different parts of the country, in order to facilitate river dredging. Bangladesh Inland Water Transport...

Stocks end post-budget week higher on DSE

Stocks posted moderate gain in the post-budget first week with record transactions as investors rushed to put bets on stocks with fresh funds to enjoy the existing tax benefits.Week-on-week, DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went...

MFIs, NGOs in alleviating poverty amid Covid

Golam Hossain, a handicraft trader ftom Katuli under Tangail Sadar upazila, borrowed Tk 20,000 from a microcredit lender. He was supposed to repay the loan in 46 equal weekly installments of Tk 550 each. He was doing well. But then...

How welcome an earlier monsoon will be

This Jaisthya, the second month of high summer, is perhaps the wettest ever if not all across the country, at least in many of its parts. It would be difficult to recall a wetter Jaisthya in Bangladesh, except in its...

The benefits of setting a lower limit on corporate taxation

On June 5, 2021, Finance Ministers from the Group of Seven major industrialised nations committed to a global minimum corporate tax rate on multinationals of at least 15 per cent. While there are a number of details yet to be...

National budget FY22, from a gender lens

The budget titled "Bangladesh Towards a Resilient Future Protecting Lives And Livelihoods 2021-22" was presented on June 3 in Parliament. The budget promised an economic plan to protect lives and livelihoods during the pandemic situation. It has proposed increased allocation...

Private sector credit growth falls further

Private sector credit growth decreased further in April, mainly due to the second wave of the Covid-19 in the country, bankers said.The growth in credit flow to the private sector came down to 8.29 per cent in April 2021 on...

Enforcing strict lockdown in border districts

The virus has now concentrated its attack on the districts close to the Indo-Bangladesh border. Dhaka that used to have death and infection tally more than half of the daily Covid victim counts is now in a somewhat comfort zone....

Urgent need for in-person tutoring for village students

A webinar organised by the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) sometime before the placement of the national budget on June 3 focused on allocation for the education system devastated by the ongoing pandemic. Without massive investment, neither the education system...

Global accountants to be VAT reps of tech giants

Globally reputed accounting firms will be able to work as VAT representatives of non-resident technology giants from fiscal year 2021-22 in Bangladesh.The proposed change of a provision in the VAT law through the national budget will pave the way for...

Second Sukuk auction sparks huge interest

The Tk 40 billion Sukuk was over-subscribed more than eight times to Tk 327.26 billion in its second auction held at the central bank on Wednesday.A total of 67 institutions -- both conventional and Shariah-compliant financial institutions and individuals took...

Global growth prospects

The global economy is set to expand 5.6 per cent in 2021-its strongest post-recession pace in 80 years. This recovery is uneven and largely reflects sharp rebounds in some major economies amid highly unequal vaccine access, with many poorer countries...

New reality absent in budget

The annual budget for 2021-22 has been placed by the finance minister in parliament in the wake of a second wave of Covid-19 pandemic across the country. But questions are already being raised by critics on whether it reflected the...

Can Sukuk match the growth trajectory of green bonds?

As the socially responsible investment movement in fixed income began to take off a decade ago, a great deal of ink was spilled on the similarity of green bonds and Sukuk. Both products are explicitly ethical and appeal to investors'...

ADB finds sites to produce 61MW

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has found three suitable sites for floating solar power plants which, once installed, will be able to generate a total of 61-megawatt electricity.Officials said Barapukuria pit lakes in Dinajpur would be able to host a...

BB sets Sukuk allotment quota

The central bank has set a Sukuk allotment quota, giving priority to the Shariah-based Islamic banks, non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) and insurance companies, for the second auction of the bonds, officials said.As per the Bangladesh Bank (BB) criteria, the Shariah-based...

Water area under customs supervision doubles

The water area under the Bangladesh Customs supervision has doubled, extending up to twenty four nautical miles in the maritime boundary from the previous twelve nautical miles from baseline.The extended area came under the control of the customs authority on...

China's long-term success depends on its internal challenges

In 2012 the Chinese government set a long-term goal: build China into a fully developed and prosperous country by 2049, 100 years after the founding of the People's Republic. Given its success since the beginning of economic reform in 1978,...

When delay in a trade agreement undermines food security

Access to food should never be a luxury. It is a fundamental human right. Yet in 2020, 155 million people faced severe food insecurity. And the situation could deteriorate further. Food prices are perilously climbing to heights like those that...

Budget identifies priorities, lacks clear plan of action

The budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22) is proposed by the finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal at a critical time of the pandemic. The title of the budget speech is "Bangladesh Towards a Resilient Future Protecting Lives And Livelihoods."...

Govt moves to streamline renewable energy policy

The country's renewable energy regulator has moved to revise the decade-old renewable energy policy to streamline it with the present situation and demand, officials said. Bangladesh enacted its first renewable energy policy in 2008, which set a target to generate...

BB extends policy support to exporters until Dec 31

The central bank has extended the tenure of its different policy supports to export trade by six more months amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, officials said.The exporters will now enjoy the facilities until December 31 this year, according to a...

Israel can't atone for past wrongs while perpetuating a terrible injustice

Most of us tend to think that sensitivity to the rights of vulnerable human communities that are subjected to oppression is something limited to recent decades. According to the conventional wisdom, we are gradually learning to include more and more...

Protection against thunder strikes

Thunderstorms and thunderbolts are not uncommon in subtropical Bangladesh, especially, during the months of April and May in summer. But what is concerning is that in recent years the number of deaths and injuries from thunderbolts have been on the...