Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The BBN (Bangladesh Business News) has prepared the morning business round up compiling reports, published by different newspapers and news portals in Bangladesh.
Permanent committee formed to review rates on savings tools
The government has formed a nine-member permanent committee to review and re-fix the interest rates on savings instruments twice in a year to tighten the galloping borrowing from the costly instruments as their skyrocketing sales put a dent on the economy. April and October are the months fixed for revisions to be conducted by the committee, a senior official of the finance ministry said.
Offshore loans on the rise
Foreign loans rose 14.33 percent through the banks' offshore banking in the last quarter of fiscal 2015-16 thanks to low interest rates. The total outstanding foreign loans of offshore banking stood at Tk 38,087 crore in the April-June period, according to Bangladesh Bank statistics. In the previous quarter, it was Tk 33,311 crore. Individuals or institutions can take short-term foreign loans through offshore units of commercial banks.
Cut unofficial technical programmes, consultants
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has asked the Bangladesh Bank (BB) to reduce its unofficial technical programmes. He gave the instruction at a meeting with the BB senior officials on Sunday. "I gave one instruction (to the central bank) - to cut down the number of unofficial technical programmes," the finance minister told reporters after a discussion.
Square Denim plans to achieve sustainability thru high quality
Square Denim Limited, a new denim fabrics manufacturer in Bangladesh, has put focus on producing high quality fabrics for high-end denim products as it believes such policy will help the industry have value addition and sustain “Focusing on high quality products rather than massive manufacturing of ordinary fabrics for denim will not only add value to our industry but help it sustain also,” Tapan Chowdhury, managing director of Square Denim, told journalists.
Telcos propose to hike charge for mobile wallet users
Telecom operators have urged the regulator to raise the cost of messaging service for mobile money transfer to Tk 2 from almost zero, which means customers will have to pay more. The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh has recently submitted its proposal to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, saying 86 percent of unstructured supplementary service data or USSD traffic and 100 percent of SMS are free of charge.
Bangladesh’s stocks continue to reel under pressure
Bangladesh’s stocks extended their losing spell for the sixth session in a row on Sunday as most of the investors continued on selling mood amid lack of market triggers. The market opened with a positive note, gaining about 10 points within first 20 minutes of trading, but the rest of the session, fell steadily, ultimately ended nearly 20 points lower. DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 19.72 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 4,534.56 points.
Govt to control LPG pricing for autos
The government will regulate the pricing of LPG or liquefied petroleum gas for use in automobiles as it has decided on this fuel's larger-scale consumption, officials said. In tune with the move to increase LPG consumption substantially, the government will issue new licences for installing auto-gas stations, they added.
BSEC again urges BTRC to block rumour-mongering FB pages
The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on Sunday called on the telecom regulator again to block 100 Facebook pages which, the BSEC found, were manipulating share prices by spreading various rumours. The capital market regulator issued a letter in this regard as the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is yet to give any reply to its previous letter issued four months ago.
BBN/SSR/AD