Chittagong port

Chittagong port of Bangladesh

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.

Finance ministry favours signing free trade deals
The Ministry of Finance has given the go-ahead to the Ministry of Commerce to move forward towards signing bilateral and multilateral free trade area (FTA) agreements with developed and developing countries, officials said. The finance ministry’s green light came as it gave its opinion on Bangladesh’s signing FTAs.

Unilever to buy 82pc of GSK Bangladesh
Unilever is set to buy 82 percent stakes in GlaxoSmithKline’s health food and drinks business in Bangladesh for Tk 1,640 crore, as part of the Anglo-Dutch company’s push to cash in on Asia’s fast-growing economies. It is also purchasing GSK’s entire health food and drinks portfolio in India as well as in 20 other Asian countries for 3.3 billion euros (about $3.74 billion), after it fought off competition from rivals Nestle and Coca-Cola.

16.92 lakh taxpayers file returns for FY19
A total of 16.92 lakh individual taxpayers including 2.13 lakh new ones filed their income tax returns within the deadline ended on Sunday, in the current fiscal year of 2018-2019, according to National Board of Revenue data. The number of tax returns rose by 14 per cent in this fiscal year compared with that in last fiscal year (2017-18) when 14.78 lakh taxpayers filed their tax returns, the data showed.

Bangladesh’s crop loans come under CIB reporting
The outstanding crop loans of the agriculture sector have come under Credit Information Bureau (CIB) reporting system of the central bank from now. The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has asked all banks to report the outstanding crop loans ranging from BDT 1.0 and any amount to the CIB, according to a notification issued by the central bank on Monday.

Bangladesh’s stocks end gaining amid cautious trading
Bangladesh’s stocks closed slightly higher for the second day in a row on Monday as investors were trading cautiously ahead of national elections. Analysts said investors continued trading cautiously as the national elections nears while some investors showed buying appetite on sector specific stocks, taking the market in green territory.

Govt relaxes EPZ labour law
The government has relaxed the labour law for the export processing zones to ensure better rights of the workers employed in the special industrial parks. The EPZ workers will now enjoy the freedom of association to realise their demands, according to the new amendments to the Bangladesh EPZ Labour Act approved by the cabinet yesterday.

Plastic sector entrepreneurs urge Bangladesh Bank to facilitate green financing
Key stakeholders of plastic sector enterprises on Sunday urged Bangladesh Bank to allow use of the Green Transformation Fund (GTF) for construction of plastic waste energy recovery plants. The remark was made at a consultation dialogue organized by Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) at their office in Dhaka.

178 to get CIP status from export sector for 2016
The government has nominated 178 businesspeople as commercial important persons (export) for their extra ordinary performance in the country’s export business in 2016. The commerce ministry has recently announced the names of the CIPs through a notice in the Bangladesh Gazette and said that the CIPs would enjoy some privileges from the government until the next winners were named.

BBN/SSR/AD