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.
Banks slow in lending from stimulus packages
Slow loan distribution by banks from the government stimulus packages to cushion the impact of the coronavirus on the economy, has left the Bangladesh Bank frustrated, prompting it to issue an order to disburse all the funds by the end of next month. After the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded in Bangladesh, the government announced 19 stimulus packages totaling up to Tk103,117 crore, equivalent to almost 3.5% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Banks in Bangladesh have the lowest capital base in South Asia
The capital base of Bangladesh's banking sector is much weaker than in peer countries -- a situation that not only highlights its frailty but also the heightened vulnerability amid the coronavirus pandemic. Capital adequacy ratio (CAR) is the reflection of all financial indicators of banks, including the ratio of defaulted loans, the capability of keeping provisioning against regular and classified loans and the actual situation of corporate governance.
Corporates not preparing quality financial reports
Experts at an online meeting on Saturday said many corporates were not preparing quality financial reports. Chairman of Financial Reporting Council (FRC) CQK Mustaq Ahmed said at the meeting many companies were adopting "various mechanisms" for the survival during the Covid-19 pandemic. "We are hearing companies are taking various mechanisms, we are not blaming them, they are incurring losses, but they have to abide by laws," he said while speaking as chief guest at the online meeting organised by the ICAB.
Banking sector will no longer lay golden eggs
The banking sector will no longer be the goose that laid the golden eggs when it comes to supplying money to the economy as the government wants to kill it by imposing the lending rate cap, said bankers. They made the remark on Saturday while speaking at an online discussion with The Business Standard over the current state of the banking sector.
Weekly Review: Bangladesh’s stocks see gain marginally
Bangladesh’s stocks posted a modest gain in the outgoing week with turnover hitting nine years high thanks to huge block transactions of GlaxoSmithKline Bangladesh shares. Week-on-week, DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, went up by 17.45 points or 0.44 per cent to settle the week at 3,986. The total turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, soared to BDT 33.34 billion on the country’s premier bourse last week due to the acquisition of GSK Bangladesh by Unilever Overseas Holdings BV on the block market
Internet blackout for a couple of hours every week is a real
Broadband service providers are threatening to observe weekly service shutdowns of one or two hours across the country if a uniform rate of value-added tax (VAT) was not brought about for them and their customers by July. Until 2017-18, the end-users paid a 15 per cent VAT on their internet usage while the internet service providers 15 per cent on their bandwidth purchases and another 15 per cent on purchases they made for transmission purposes.
NBR tightens conditions of bond licence issuance
The National Board of Revenue has tightened the conditions of issuing bonded warehouse licence to prevent misuse of duty-free import facility under bond licence. The new conditions will also prevent small and fake companies from getting the licence for import of raw materials duty-free, said NBR officials.
RMG exports to US drop 12pc
The country's apparel exports to the United States fell by 12.10 per cent during the first five months of the current calendar year due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, exporters have said. Bangladesh fetched US$2.24 billion through exporting readymade garments (RMG) to the US market during the period from January to May, 2020 as compared to $2.55 billion of the corresponding period of 2019, according to data of the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) affiliated with the US Department of Commerce.
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