NBR cuts AIT to 3.0pc on cement materials import

The government has reduced the rate of advance income tax (AIT) on import of cement raw materials to 3.0 per cent from 5.0 per cent.National Board of Revenue (NBR) issued a SRO (statutory regulatory order) in this regard on Thursday,...

Warm clothes and the poor

The winter has finally made its presence felt -and felt quite unerringly. Unannounced has it caught the city dwellers, many of whom complained of total absence of wintry symptom till the other day, off guard. The sceptics cannot be blamed...

Govt directive to agencies

The government will take stern action against recruiting agencies if they send female workers to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) on false documents, said an official.In a circular issued on December 10 last, the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and...

CCTV cameras along Ctg highway

A move has been made to bring the Dhaka-Chattogram highway under surveillance cameras for checking accidents and criminal activities along the corridor.The Highway Police have initiated to establish closed-circuit television (CCTV) monitoring from Kanchpur to Chattogram gate under a capacity-building...

Twin trouble of obesity and malnutrition

The Lancet is a world-renowned journal of medical science and research. In its recent issue, it drew our attention to the twin problems existing in the arena of in health and nutrition. The low and middle income countries, judges the...

July-Nov farm credit flow up by over 11pc

Farm credit disbursement grew by more than 11 per cent in the first five months of the current fiscal year (FY), 2019-20, as demand for such loan has been picked up due to seasonal effects. Disbursement of agriculture loan rose...

Stocks keep losing amid confidence crisis

The stock market remained bearish for the third consecutive week on the bourses as panic-driven investors continued their selling spree, fearing further fall of shares prices. Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by...

Carbon markets -- a crucial part of the solution to climate crisis

One of the main discussions at the COP25 climate change talks (December 02-15, 2019) was Article 6, which is designed to provide financial support to emerging economies and developing countries to help them reduce emissions by using global carbon markets....

Difficult to deal with uncouth people

Is uncouth behaviour taking over courteous and dignified manner? It is difficult to think otherwise. There is no formal parameter to determine the level of such behaviour. Whether uncouth behaviour is on the rise or not cannot be captured by...

Pros and cons of single digit lending rate

The economic performance as revealed by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) indicates the economy maintained its real growth inertia with 8.15 per cent over the fiscal year 2018-2019, which is merely 0.02 per cent higher than the preceding fiscal year...

Rural interest trade and hapless victims

Can you recall the characters of the Bangla classic 'Jok' of Abu Ishak that you might have read in your teens? Beat your brains and you will remember the textbook episode at high school level in the 1990s. He has...

Securing street children's rights

The High Court has ordered the ministry of women and children affairs, the ministry of social welfare and others concerned to submit within 40 days what measures they have taken for rehabilitation of street children. This order was passed by...

Tender remains stopped for one year: Official

CHATTOGRAM, Dec 19: The process to float tender to appoint a new operators for General Cargo Berth (GCB) of the Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) is being delayed due to two cases filed before the higher court.As a result, Everest Enterprise...

No bar to changing asset manager of two MFs, says BSEC lawyer

The securities regulator now can change the asset manager of two closed-end mutual funds (MFs) as the Supreme Court (SC) has stayed the status quo which barred the regulator from doing so, a jurist said."The asset manager sought status quo...

Scope aplenty for $10b investment

Scope abounds for a whacking $10-billion investment in nine projects under public-private partnership (PPP) with the government-to-government (G2G) arrangement.The PPP Authority (PPPA) has so far signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with four nations and made some progress with Japan and...

Understanding different ways of learning

The ability to learn is the most marked trait of human beings. Learning is a process - a journey. It actually takes place throughout our life, in different ways and in different contexts, beginning when we are in the womb,...

Putting money into black hole?

Amidst all the indices plunging unabatedly and the daily turnover reaching its lowest level in six months, a move is on to inject yet another large sum of money in the stock market to buoy it up. When a group...

Decline in poverty is not all

On the face of it, the 1.3 percentage point drop of poverty from 21.8 per cent in the financial year (FY) 2017-18 to 20.5 per cent in 2018-19 may be considered an icing on the cake. This is so because...

Facilitating the IP protections

At a time when Asia accounts for more than two-thirds of global industrial intellectual property (IP) protections, Bangladesh lags far behind. Position of the country did not change noticeably in global IP domain last year, according to the latest World...

Taka strengthens against dollar

The local currency appreciated by two paisa against US dollar on Wednesday after nearly three years in the inter-bank foreign exchange (forex) market.Dollar was quoted at Tk 84.88 per unit on the day against Tk 84.90 of the previous working...

Govt seeks opinions of central bank, BSEC

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has sought opinions from the central bank and the securities regulator on a loan amount of Tk 100 billion (10,000 crore) sought by stock brokers to shore up the moribund stock market.The chairman of the...

Tk 100m lab soon to provide pre-shipment potato test

The government will soon inaugurate a state-of-the-art lab at a cost of Tk 100 million (Tk 10 crore) to provide pre-shipment testing of potato in conformity with international standard, an official at the ministry of agriculture (MoA) said on Wednesday.The...

Her successful freelance journey

Nahid Akhter is one of the few top-rated freelancers on Upwork with a 100 per cent Job Success Score from Bangladesh. Brought up at Dubai, she finished her bachelor’s in Computer Science from Al Ghurair University and worked as a...

The 'Why' and 'How' of networks

The world today is becoming more and more socially connected and networked. To utilise these newly formed networks and build stronger social ties it's important to understand these realities.There was an idea, floated by Frigyes Karinthy, one of the most...

How to strengthen trade facilitation reforms

The issue of trade facilitation has come to the fore since the inception of World Trade Organisation (WTO) to promote freer trade globally. As it reduces costs of trade including export and import, and thus enhances socio-economic benefits such as...

Address malnutrition, not just food security

Malnutrition remains a formidable challenge in most societies, with less than a tenth of countries in the world not experiencing at least one major malnutrition problem. In relatively more food secure countries, where almost everyone has enough to eat, and...

EU deadline looms over labour issues

The European Union (EU) has set Bangladesh a tight time limit to address longstanding issues concerning human rights and good governance in factories.The political and economic bloc of Europe said Bangladesh must submit in writing by January 02 a draft...

Not to confuse social safety net with poverty alleviation

Researchers working at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), the oldest economic research and think-tank in Bangladesh, have recently completed an analysis of a government programme titled, `Strengthening Women's Ability for Productive New Opportunities' (SWAPNO). Based on their findings...

Malaysian B4G and 3D jobs

Thousands of 'illegal' foreign workers are now leaving Malaysia under an amnesty programme titled B4G (back for good). Nearly 38,000 Bangladeshis, according to a report published in this paper Sunday, have already returned home and a few thousand more are...

Transfer Pricing Cell to put 921 foreign cos under scanner

The Transfer Pricing Cell (TPC) would put some 921 foreign companies, operating in Bangladesh in various forms, under its close scrutiny to find out the level of their tax compliance in relation to cross-border transactions.The TPC, under the National Board...