Footing the public servants\\\' pay hike bills

Last Saturday's issue of the Financial Express carried two items on the front page -- one was on the probable allocation in the next national budget to foot the pay bill of a large number of public servants and the...

Listed financial cos to get corporate tax cut

The country's publicly-listed commercial banks, insurance companies and non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) are likely to see a cut in their corporate income tax rates by 2.5 percentage points in the upcoming fiscal year, sources concerned said. The government may cut...

City residents drive rice bran oil demand

Demand for antioxidant-rich rice bran oil is gradually rising among the health conscious city dwellers, which may reduce dependence on imported soybean oil, industry insiders said. According to wholesalers and retailers, after an intense awareness campaign, particularly among housewives, demand...

Budget 2015-16: Redrawing the plan on spending

In an earlier article on budget this scribe focused on prioritising two factors of our strength – (i) the ARMS and the (ii) LEGS. The ARMS are Agriculture (A), Ready-made garments (R), Manpower (M) and Second-best Sector (S), which are...

World No Tobacco Day 2015: Curbing illicit tobacco trade

As the world observes World No Tobacco Day 2015 on this very day, the World Health Organisation (WHO) states – about 6.0 million people die each year due to active tobacco consumption, including ex-smokers. Additionally, 600,000 non-smokers die due to...

Will Bangladesh give India land transit?

Narendra Modi would be undertaking his first visit to Bangladesh on June 06-07, a year after becoming the prime minister of India. Meantime, he has visited Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. There has been an apparent delay in his coming...

\\\'Irrational Exuberance\\\' about the stock market in Bangladesh

What is the relationship between stock market and economic development? The answer is not plain and straight forward. Yes, developed countries have a strong stock market. But that does not necessarily mean a strong stock market is the reason for...

Launch of most businesses starts with palm-greasing

More than 96 per cent businessmen of the country have to bribe the government agencies concerned to obtain necessary documents before starting any business, a study has revealed. Among them, importers are the majority-98.6 per cent-who have to pay kickbacks...

BD-India water transit deal renewal becomes uncertain

The renewal of the Indo-Bangladesh water-transit protocol has become uncertain with Delhi disagreeing to allow the passage of goods to third countries through its land, pay levies to Dhaka for such transit and raise the maintenance cost of protocol routes,...

BEZA seeks equal deal in export-import policies to attract EZ investors

The Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) has sought to put its name in the new import and export policies along with enough policy bounties to lure in investors from home and abroad.       Officials of the new body on economic sector...

Stocks extend winning streak for 4th week

Stocks extended their winning streak for the four straight weeks that ended Thursday despite the premier bourse faced 'technical glitches' in the first two trading sessions of the week. The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) witnessed major technical glitches in the...

Satisfying the learners while teaching a second language

When we conduct a class and speak to a group of learners we want to inform them something or, persuade or entertain them. To achieve any or all of these objectives, we should know their interests, likes and dislikes; otherwise...

When hubris takes over human quality

The humiliation an invigilator at a Higher Secondary Certificate examination hall in Bhandaria was forced to go through is most outrageous, to say the least. Two government officials-one the boss of the upazila and another a magistrate there-had no qualm...

Organic fertilizer imperative for agriculture

With a view to meeting the food deficiency, dependence on chemical fertilizer in Bangladesh has increased manifold over the past decades. No doubt, this has resulted in boosting crop production. But as a result of the overwhelming reliance on chemical...

Energising FDI inflow deserves priority

Finance Minister AMA Muhit has expressed his disappointment at the inadequate inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country. In a pre-budget discussion this week, he clearly said that he had been emphasising on the higher FDI inflow for...

Only 4.0pc turned into four-lane highways

Over 10 years of official efforts to upgrade the country's important highways to four-lane ones have hardly made any headway, leaving long-route journeys ever more risky for frequent tragedies. By official count, only four per cent road infrastructures are now...

AIT likely on import of some essentials from FY \\\'16

The government is likely to slap advance income tax (AIT) on import of some essential items, including rice, wheat, sugar and petroleum oil, from the upcoming fiscal year (FY), 2015-16. However, import of these essential commodities may enjoy a reduced...

BD to press again for removing NTBs, PTBs during Modi visit

Bangladesh will raise the issues relating to non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and para-tariff barriers (PTBs) again during the ensuing visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officials have said.  "The response from Indian officials on removal of NTBs and PTBs is...

Telcos to lose control over towers

The nation's telecom regulator has approved the guidelines for tower sharing licences, which will pave the way for third party to develop and control mobile-network infrastructure, an official said. The guidelines, approved in a recent meeting of the Bangladesh Telecommunica-tion...

Public expenditure on infrastructure

For a developing country seeking to boost economic growth and development, infrastructure plays a decisive role. The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive Index (GCI) lists transport and energy infrastructure as a key pillar of competitiveness, highlighting their role as essential...

On the road to attain six EFA goals

In 2000, at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, 164 governments pledged to achieve 'Education for All (EFA)' and identified six goals to be met by 2015. Goal 1 - Early childhood care and education: Expanding and improving comprehensive...

Social media and internet activism

Nowadays, the power of technology is greater than what we could not even imagine a few years ago. Nobody will deny that we are living in a strange time, when a certain phenomenon called social media has occupied our thinking...

Culture of condonation and impunity

Patriarchal societies have an arcane attitude towards sex crime. How the inadequacy of the view gets exposed unaware at times is best illustrated by the recent naïve statement by the country's police chief. He preferred as innocuous a term as...

Electoral reform for holding credible elections

The international community wants reform of the country's electoral system on the basis of political understanding. Their proposal is aimed at free, fair and participatory election. They are considering the views of the civil society in this regard. There are...

Costs of migration

Most of the migrants are desperate people. They are prepared to take any risk to fulfill their dream of a better life. Knowing this, recruiting agents and human traffickers take full advantage. The former get paid many times over what...

BB mounts watch on offshore banking

The central bank has expedited monitoring and supervision on offshore banking units (OBUs) of the commercial banks for limiting risks in free trans-boundary transactions, officials said Wednesday. As part of the move, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) is now collecting information...

Expectations from Mr. Mayor

A mayor is regarded as the first citizen of the city. There are numerous debates on the authorisation of a mayor, but it is important for us to remember that a mayor is the person directly elected by the city...

Big groups move into rice milling business

Big corporate houses are investing in rice milling and marketing, encouraged by demand from a growing population in the country, insiders said. ACI, City Group, Pran-RFL Group and Bashundhara Group are among the companies that are preparing to set up...

Budgets caught in deficit trap

The Keynesian theory of deficit financing advocating injection of money into the economy to ensure full employment has widely been accepted by many developed and developing countries in their fiscal policies. Deficit financing in a national budget usually happens as...

Pull and push factors in non-farm occupations

In a recent research paper, eminent economist Mahabub Hossain has dealt with rural non-farm sector and labour productivity. Do non-farm activities provide relatively full-time employment?  Are these taken up basically to augment household incomes during slack seasons of agricultural activities?...