Making domestic borrowing transparent

International Develop-ment Association (IDA) countries have been relying increasingly on their domestic markets to meet their borrowing needs. This trend is welcome. Well-functioning and liquid domestic debt markets provide a stable source of funding during normal times and a buffer...

Incentivising the evil?

Since the government offered a fresh opportunity to legalise the 'undisclosed' - a word deliberately used to hide the true identity of illegally earned funds - money in the budget for the current fiscal year (FY), some business leaders and...

Customs key areas identified

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pointed out some key areas where customs crucially need to develop its capacities for trade facilitation.The areas include customs classification of goods, valuation, investigation and enforcement, quick clearance of goods, post-clearance audit, money laundering...

An uneven global economic recovery in 2021

The opening sentence of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is among the most famous in world literature, but it has a special significance to economists, for whom it represents a principle that can be applied in multiple contexts and fields of study....

Achieving the SDGs: Calls for extraordinary effort by all

The pandemic's impact on the world's poor has been especially harsh. Covid-19 may have pushed about 100 million people into extreme poverty in 2020 alone, while the United Nations (UN) warns that in some regions poverty could rise to levels...

Businesses allege harassment

A section of field-level VAT and customs officials are found reluctant to use the automated system under VAT Online Project (VOP), businesses have alleged.The relevant officials instead of availing the system ask the importers and traders to submit documents manually...

Bangladsh framing India-like rules

Bangladesh is enacting new customs rules to administer all the tariff preferences given under various bilateral, regional and multilateral pacts, officials have said.The new rules being framed by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) will be identical to those the...

Stocks extend rally amid eased virus worries

Stocks extended the winning streak for the fourth consecutive week as investors continued their buying interest based on better-than-expected earnings and eased virus worries.The week saw five trading days as usual. Of them, four sessions closed higher while one faced...

What Covid-19 means for SDGs in Bangladesh

As the Covid-19 global pandemic has mired economies around the world and thrown the future of the global economy into ambiguity, Bangladesh's economy (the ratio of trade volume to GDP was 31.5 per cent in FY 2018-19) is also affected...

Ergonomics and preventing work-related musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders

Work-related musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders (MSSDs) are among the most repeatedly reported causes of missed workdays or restricted work time among workers in many industrialised countries and according to one estimate, MSSD cases account for about one-third of all worker...

Last-ditch battle against the pandemic

With the Eid-ul-Fitr around the corner, tension is mounting among health experts if the impending exodus of Eid holidaymakers from the capital and other big cities may finally cause to reverse the ongoing falling trend in Covid-19 infection rate in...

Imports from ACU nations rise by 23pc

Imports from the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) member countries increased by more than 23 per cent in the March-April period of this calendar year, officials said.The amount of ACU payment rose to US$1.75 billion during the period of 2021 from...

Expansion work to begin soon as first tender floated

The Dhaka-Sylhet highway widening work is finally going to see the light of the day after more than five years, as the first tender of the nearly 210 kilometre road has recently been opened.On April 29, Roads and Highways Department...

Deliberate negligence costs lives

At least 26 people died last Monday when the speedboat they were on crashed into a sand-carrying bulkhead in the river Padma.Five other passengers of the boat were rescued alive by the local people. As expected, the accident triggered lots...

Accountability of state-owned companies

At the time of approval of 10 projects worth Tk 119,01 billion at a virtual meeting of the executive committee of the national economic council (ECNEC), Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina raised a pertinent question about the capability of financing their...

Budget FY22: Deficit financing and public spending

At a time when the government should opt for increasing public expenditure to accelerate economic recovery, it appears to have taken measures that are not commensurate with the needs of the time. As of December FY21, the overall budget deficit...

Nursing as a career choice

Can one call a stranger, man or woman, as 'sister' or 'brother' and hand over the responsibility of his/her life to that stranger, even while being in a critical physical condition? The only option here is a nurse. While it...

How learners grow through case contests

Business case competitions cover one of the most interesting chapters of university life. Some might say these competitions are the best parts of the university life letting one learn more than what one can learn from the classroom; some might...

Recovery through regional cooperation

Last month, the world marked the first anniversary since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Covid-19 virus as a pandemic. Throughout the year, we witnessed how a virus can bring forth a global health crisis, followed by a chain...

Jute diversification in limbo

Diversified jute products from Bangladesh have had enormous potential in the world market because of their environment-friendly attributes, but the government-led efforts in the area in recent years have not succeeded in making much headway. Innovations like jute geo-textile, paper...

Curbing Covid-19: Is lockdown an option for developing countries?

In the past few weeks, the pandemic has taken an alarming turn in many countries of South Asia including Bangladesh. To suppress the growth of infection, initially, a week-long lockdown was announced from April 5 in Bangladesh. Then, the government...

Centrally registering the VAT & a critique

In a recent article titled "Central VAT registration in Bangladesh: An appraisal" (published in the Financial Express on April 29, 2021), Dr. Md Abdur Rouf has rightly pointed out present limitations of central Value Added Tax (VAT) registration and proposed...

RHD seeks less budgetary allocation for next FY

The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has sought lower budgetary allocation for the upcoming fiscal year (FY2021-22) as compared to few previous FYs due to Covid-19 pandemic.Sources said it sought Tk 156.86 billion for implementing 169 projects without inclusion of...

No headway in lifting anti-dumping duty yet

There is no development regarding lifting anti-dumping duty on Bangladeshi goods in Indian market and Dhaka is yet to hear from New Delhi despite sending a letter in this regard two months back, officials said.After the bilateral commerce secretary level...

Tax receipts from DSE slump 30pc in April

The government's revenue earnings from the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) slumped by 30 per cent month-on-month in April as share sales by sponsor-directors fell sharply.Market insiders said low amount of shares sales by sponsor-directors due to the 'strict' lockdown mainly...

Accessibility to the Covid-19 vaccine under the intellectual property regime

In a recent TV talk show, two discussants involved with the medicine and the pharmaceutical industry, were discussing the uncertainty of getting the Covid-19 vaccine. One of them asked why they wrre not issuing compulsory licences for the vaccine production....

Macroeconomic stance, revenue mobilisation for FY22 budget

Almost after a year since the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Bangladesh, the country is passing through a second wave of the pandemic. The second wave seems to be stronger than the first one both in the number...

NBR to settle 30,000 'short shipments' thru' Asycuda

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to settle some 30,000 export shipments using Asycuda system following difficulties of the exporters concerned to avail cash incentives from the central bank against those.The shipments, known as 'short shipments', were not...

Forex reserve crosses record $45b mark

Bangladesh's foreign exchange (forex) reserve crossed US$45 billion-mark for the first time on Monday following lower import payment obligations and higher growth of inward remittance, officials said.The forex reserve rose to $45.01 billion on the day, setting a new record,...

Covid-19 and the moms' emergency

A year ago, the world changed. While the pandemic's effect on workers has varied worldwide, the new reality has left many mothers scrambling. With schools and day-cares closed, many were forced to leave their jobs or cut the hours they...