NBR prepares draft of nat’l tobacco tax policy

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has prepared a draft of the national tobacco tax policy with a provision for a time-bound action plan. The plan aims at keeping a tight rein on tobacco consumption. The draft tax policy has...

Finance boss seeks info on bank loan defaulters

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has asked all the scheduled banks to provide information on their respective top-50 loan defaulters by June 04 next, officials have said. The BB sent letters to all the banks on May 18 last to submit...

Tariff commission suggests addition of two more slabs

The Bangladesh Tariff Commission (BTC) has suggested raising the number of tariff slabs to seven from the existing five to make it time-befitting and consistent with the practices in neighbouring countries, officials have said. But the proposal was greeted with...

Two business groups to venture into cement manufacturing

Two business groups are set to join the cement manufacturing market with about Tk 5 billion investment by the beginning of next year amid the sector's steady growth of around 15 per cent annually. Bengal Group of Industries and Aman...

Stocks extend rally for third straight week

The stock market witnessed yet another brisk week that ended Thursday with significant improvement in turnover as investors were on buying spree amid optimism. Analysts said the interest rate cut on savings instruments, falling rates of deposit interest and restoration...

Omar al-Khayyám - An Islamic scholar

Omar Khayyám (18 May 1048 - 4 December 1131) was an Islamic scholar who was a poet as well as a mathematician. He compiled astronomical tables and contributed to calendar reform and discovered a geometrical method of solving cubic equations...

Gender discrimination runs in the blood

Male chauvinism expresses itself in many forms and subtleties. In educated societies it is subdued but not absent at all. Below that level it has its cruellest of expressions. How barbaric and horrifying it can be is often highlighted by...

Sexual harassment: Blame-game is no solution

After the occurrence of any heinous crime in Bangladesh, it is rather a popular trend amongst the politicians to put the blame on so-called Islamists or unidentified miscreants purportedly to hide the true face of the perpetrators and to gain...

Genesis of ISIS

There is one story that everyone has been led to believe. Sitting in Afghanistan, Osama bin-Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, had planned and executed the 9/11 attacks. His al-Qaeda terrorists, 19 in all, had hijacked four passenger aircrafts flying regular...

Learning lessons from Greece

For the last few weeks the newly-elected government in Greece could not get money to meet their debt obligation to IMF and other EU countries as it failed to produce an acceptable budget plan reflecting austerity measures. Yield on long-term...

Cut in corporate tax rate likely

The government is set to bring some major changes on direct tax measures including upward revision of tax-free ceiling for individual taxpayers and trimming down of the corporate tax rate for publicly-traded companies by 2.5 per cent in the budget...

Jetro study lists 11 potential areas in BD for Japanese investment

A study, sponsored by two Japanese organisations, has identified    Bangladesh's 11 sectors which could offer rewarding businesses opportunities to big companies from Japan. Japanese companies would be required to fully exploit the demographic-dividend bonus alongside the advantages coming from the...

Car theft unabated as culprits defy technology, steps

Initiatives from both the government and the private sector have failed to put a brake on the theft of vehicles across the country. According to data from Bangladesh Police (headquarters), the number of such incidents rather increased in the wake...

Glimpses of policy planning exercises

Policy planning requires exhaustive exercises. During these exercises, policy planners have to deal with a complex set of issues. At the same time, many of them develop their own thoughts in the process. These thoughts contribute to policy formulation and...

Developing the country\\\'s human capital

Out of 124 countries, Bangla­desh ranks 99th on the global Human Capital Index in the Human Capital Report 2015 prepared by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Released on May 14 last from Geneva, Switzerland, the report has taken as many...

Forcible reduction of interest rate proves futile

Credit market is characteristically different from the conventional auction market where sellers can freely adjust prices in response to demand and supply. In credit market, the law of demand is not fully applicable; the higher demand for funds doesn't necessarily...

Building Code not being followed

Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) 2006 is not being followed in constructing buildings due to lack of proper monitoring by the authority concerned. This is making those vulnerable to earthquakes, said a top realtor of the country. "BNBC 2006 has...

Should BB prop up the share market?

The share market of the country, variously called the stock market, the capital market or the bourse, has been in the doldrums ever since billions of taka was siphoned off from the market in 2010 by scammers through fraudulent means....

You, the most important brand

As Tom Peters said, "Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be...

Please send me an email!

We are the next-generation folks and we all are over internet, so much so that it has become an addiction. Imagine your feeling if you find your WiFi is not working not properly one fine morning. We cannot make do...

Growth persistent: How to reduce unemployment, income inequality?

The state of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is no doubt the key indicator to measure the performance of an economy. For the last few months, this is clearly reflected in discussions and discourses on the growth of the economy...

Does Bangladesh Bank want to tread the same path, again?

It is not clear why a movement of funds from stock market to deposits and saving certificates, if it had occurred at all, should have reduced investment. Money invested in saving certificates is available to the government to fund its...

Dhaka, Moscow fail to form jt trade body in years

Dhaka and Moscow could not form a Joint Trade Commission (JTC), although nearly two and a half years have elapsed since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to Russia in January 2013, officials said. During the visit, the two countries agreed...

HSC question paper on facebook and response

An HSC (higher secondary certificate) examinee under the Dhaka education board posted a copy of the leaked question paper (objective part) of accounting on his 'facebook' page at 2.33 a.m. of Sunday night. Next day at the examination hall he...

BD’s overseas investment on steady rise

Bangladeshi investment in the outer world has been on a steady rise-through both overt and covert channels. Experts say the actual volume of country's investment overseas cannot be gauged as capital flowing out through unrecognised passages is thought to be...

Govt employees likely to come under full taxation

Government officials' salary incomes are likely to come under full-scale taxation from the upcoming financial year, as the tax net is being cast wide to enhance revenue. An initiative has been taken to bring their salary incomes--both basic and allowances--under...

Kim Jong-un: A ticking time bomb?

About three years ago, I had a laughing fit when the late night TV talk show host funny man David Letterman in his show Late Night with David Letterman joked about Kim Jong-un by saying that Kim is "spending more...

It\\\'s time to restructure tariff regime

TRENDS IN AVERAGE INPUT AND OUTPUT TARIFFS:  The trends in nominal protection rates (NPR) of import categories reveal that in the recent past the average NPR for imported input categories (basic raw materials, intermediate and capital goods) have been declining...

Draft direct tax law comes under review

An official move is underway to review the draft direct tax law following suggestions from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that has found flaws in the law in relation to globally-followed best practices. The Fiscal Affairs Division (FAD) of the...

Top brokers seek BB intervention

Top brokers have sought the central bank's intervention and finance minister in two core areas of bank's investments in the capital market to help stabilise the markets, officials said. In this regard, the brokers urged both the bourses to put...