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.
Living costs rise 6.47pc
The cost of living in Bangladesh rose 6.47 percent in 2016 from the previous year due to hikes in house rents and some essential food items including rice, pulses and sugar, a consumer rights campaigner said yesterday. The Consumers Association of Bangladesh or CAB also found that the prices of food and services rose 5.81 percent in the just concluded year. The CAB prepared the report taking into account the costs of 114 food items, 22 essential commodities and 14 utility services. The increase in the living cost however did not take into consideration the real expenditure for education, health and transport.
Fine realisation from errant tanners becomes irregular
Realisation of fine from tanners for failure to transfer their factories to Savar from Hazaribagh in Dhaka became irregular while the government on Sunday extended by a month the deadline for entry of raw hide to Tannery Estate at Savar. The Supreme Court on July 18, 2016 ordered each of the 154 tannery owners at Hazaribagh to pay the government Tk 10,000 per day as fine for not relocating their factories to Tannery Estate at Savar within the given time. Tannery relocation project director Abdul Quayum said that no fine was realised after the realisation of Tk 80 lakh as fine from the tanners within a month after the Supreme Court directive.
Bangladesh’s flow of inward remittances fall by 11.15% in 2016
The flow of inward remittances drooped by 11.15 per cent in the just concluded calendar year –2016 despite a significant rise in the out-bound jobs of Bangladesh nationals. Bangladeshi overseas workers remitted $13.61 billion in 2016 against $15.32 billion in 2015, according to the central bank statistics, released on Sunday. “We’re working to expedite the flow of inward remittances from different parts of the world in 2017,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
Govt wants to ‘revive’ Grameen Bank
The government plans to “revive the operations of Grameen Bank” by settling the legal issues involving the country’s leading micro-creditor. Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Sunday indicated that the government plans to “revive the operations of Grameen Bank” by settling the legal issues involving the country’s leading micro-creditor. “In order to do so, we will recast the board of directors of the Grameen Bank,” he said while answering a query regarding the future of Grameen Bank during an impromptu briefing at the secretariat‘s Finance and Banking Division office.
Bangladesh’s stocks open the year on higher note
Bangladesh’s stocks ended higher on Sunday, the first trading session of the year 2017, as optimistic investors continued on buying spree on large-cap stocks. The market started with an optimistic note in the morning and the upbeat trend persistent till the end of the session with no sign of fluctuation, ultimately ended nearly more than 47 points higher. Both the key index of the DSE advanced 47.84 points, while the Selective Category Index of port city bourse gained 91.91 points at the end of the first trading session.
2017 to be more eventful for telecom
The year 2017 looks set to be a milestone year for the telecom sector with the planned launch of the country's first communication satellite and the rollout of fourth generation mobile services. The immediate past year was no less eventful. The year saw the landmark merger of Robi and Airtel, completion of biometric re-registration of SIMs and the legal tussles with Citycell, the country's oldest operator. The six operators re-registered a total of 10.85 crore SIMs until the deadline of May 31, and at the stroke of midnight blocked about 2.5 crore unverified SIMs.
Corporate tax payment climbs up in July-Oct
Corporate tax payments by most large companies went up significantly in the first four months of the current fiscal, with four private commercial banks and three mobile companies topping the list. Official sources said the seven companies paid the highest amount of corporate income tax in the July-October period of the fiscal year (FY) 2016-17 among top 50 taxpayers under the Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
2016 foreign investment at DSE rises sevenfold
The net overseas investment at the Dhaka Stock Exchange increased to Tk 1,340.70 crore in 2016 from Tk 185.50 crore in 2015, a DSE data showed on Sunday. Market operators said that the prices of almost all the listed companies’ shares became comparatively low in the month of May in the just-concluded year, prompting foreign investors to purchase shares to avail lower prices of the securities. Besides, declining bank interest rate on deposit products and absence of political instability were among the other reasons that lured foreigners to the trading floor, they said.
BBN/SSR/AD