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.
Govt ADP execution capacity stagnates
Government agencies spent 27 per cent of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) outlay during the first half of this fiscal, almost same as last year's corresponding period. Analysts view that the government failed to improve upon its project-execution capacity compared to that of the same period (July-December) of last financial year (FY), 2016-17.
Banks’ fund management comes under BB’s close watch
Fund management of the all scheduled banks came under close supervision as the central bank issued directives on wholesale borrowing (WB) and commitment on Tuesday. Under the new provisions, the banks will have to submit their statements on WB and commitments to the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, on fortnight and monthly basis.
NBR to relax selection criteria for VAT award
The National Board of Revenue has taken an initiative to relax selection criteria for the highest VAT-payers award to honour more businesses. Officials said that the condition of payment of 10 per cent higher value-added tax than that of the previous fiscal year by a business for being eligible of getting the award would be relaxed as many compliant and large businesses are deprived of the honour due o stiff selection criteria.
Govt's bank borrowing now negative
The government's debt servicing cost is ballooning thanks to its growing leaning towards high-cost savings tools instead of bank borrowing. So much that in the first half of fiscal 2017-18, the government's net borrowing from the banking sector was in the negative, according to data from the Bangladesh Bank.
BB issues guidelines for Govt. securities buy-back
The central bank of Bangladesh has issued guidelines on buy-back of the government securities aiming to bring dynamism in the secondary market. Under the new provisions, the buy-back programme will be operational through reverse auction or over the counter (OTC) transaction as per auction calendar determined by the Finance Division.
Secondary trading of T-bills, T-bonds drops by 45pc
Secondary trading of treasury bills and treasury bonds, two short-and long-term fixed income government securities, declined steeply last year. Latest statistics of the central bank showed that the total turnover of secondary trading of T-bills and T-bonds stood at Tk 282.91 billion in 2017 while the value was Tk 514.08 billion in 2016.
Square Pharmaceuticals to initially invest $25m in Kenya
Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd (SPL), Bangladesh, started the construction work of its state-of-the-art pharmaceutical manufacturing plant on January 8, 2018 in Nairobi, Kenya. It is a benchmark achievement for the Bangladesh pharmaceutical industry as SPL will be the first Bangladeshi pharmaceutical manufacturer to build its own plant outside of Bangladesh.
Agent banking faring fine
Banks have started to reap benefit from agent banking just two years after the full-fledged rollout of the alternative financial service as it is increasingly getting popular among customers. Deposit collection rose 42 percent year-on-year to Tk 922 crore in the July-September quarter last year and it reached Tk 651 crore in the previous quarter, according to Bangladesh Bank data.
BBN/SSR/AD