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.

3 bonuses in SoBs despite Tk 10,666cr bailout fund
State-owned commercial banks excepting BASIC Bank Limited have provided three incentive bonuses to their staffs just before the recent Eid festival despite failing to improve their financial position due to growing bad loans. The government even provided Tk 10,666 crore as bailout fund to them in three years since 2014-15 to meet their severe capital shortfall stemming out of loan scams, said officials of the financial institutions division.

Padma Bank struggles to return fixed deposits
The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority Employees’ Pension Fund had parked Tk 17 crore as fixed deposit with the Motijheel branch of Padma Bank on June 28 last year. The deposit matured this year and on June 27 the trustee board of the fund wrote to the bank to cash out the fixed deposit. But Padma, formerly known as Farmers Bank, has been unable to honour their request.

Foreign firms allowed getting interest-bearing loans
The central bank of Bangladesh has relaxed regulations allowing foreign controlled firms to avail interest-bearing loans as working capital from their parent companies abroad. The interest rate on three-month term deposit will be applicable as interest rate on such short-term foreign currency loan, according to a notification issued by the Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Thursday.

New VAT calculation fallout
Pharmaceuticals industry insiders are worried that prices of drugs may increase after the changes in tax calculation method under the new VAT law. They said while trade prices (TP) of medicines at the manufacturers’ level will go down, the payable VAT will go up due to this calculation method.

Bangladesh’s stocks keep gaining for fourth straight week
Bangladesh’s stocks maintained their gaining streak for the fourth straight week that ended on Thursday, with investors showing their appetite for June year-end companies’ shares. It was also the first week after Eid-ul-Azha holiday, which saw the DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), rise 35.43 points or 0.68 per cent to settle at 5,236.

Lack of policy supports holds back e-commerce in Bangladesh
Lack of proper policy for giving trade licence to e-commerce entrepreneurs, inefficient logistics for delivering goods both at home and abroad and limited access to finance are the key challenges facing the country’s Tk1,800 crore emerging virtual business. Besides, ensuring intellectual property rights is another key issue for the sector, as for lack of this one can easily copy a product of others and sell it in market.

IMF projects 7.6pc GDP growth this fiscal year
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Bangladesh’s economic growth to be 7.6 percent this fiscal year, which is 0.6 percentage points lower than the government’s projection of 8.2 percent. Yet, the growth rate projected for Bangladesh is the highest in the South Asia region, according to the IMF’s South Asian Update, which was released last week.

Farm credit disbursement falls 15% in July
Farm credit disbursement fell by 15.11 per cent in July, the first month of the current fiscal year (FY), 2019-20, mainly due to flood at different parts of Bangladesh. Disbursement of agriculture loan came down to BDT 9.77 billion in July from BDT 11.51 billion a year ago, according to the central bank’s latest statistics.

BBN/SSR/AD