Mustafa Kamal
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.
Kamal unpacks maiden budget today
The government releases the budget for fiscal year 2019-20 today (Thursday) setting higher growth target, despite a number of domestic challenges. People familiar with the budget preparation said there will be nothing new in the annual document as it is hardly bringing about any major reform.
State banks weighed down by bad loans
Default loans in state-run commercial banks soared 10.64 percent, or Tk 5,184 crore, in the first quarter of the year -- in the strongest sign yet of the lenders’ apathy towards cleaning up their acts.
Mobile phone use may be costlier
The cost of mobile telephone use is likely to go up as the government plans to double the supplementary duty, SD in short, on mobile phone services in the fiscal year 2019-20. The SD on mobile phone services may be increased up to 10 per cent in the new budget from the current 5 per cent, finance ministry officials said.
Daunting challenges await Kamal to fix investment, revenue, jobs
Accelerating investment, generating employment and optimizing revenue income are the major daunting tasks for Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the next fiscal year. With the manifold economic challenges ahead, Kamal, a businessman-turned politician, unveils his first national budget of Tk5,23,190 crore in parliament on Thursday aiming to win hearts of a diverse group of people.
Bangladesh’s stocks dip into red after eight-day rally
Bangladesh’s stocks entered into the red on Wednesday, snapping an eight-day rally, as investors locked in profits on sector-wise shares. Market operators said a section of investors opted to book profits on stocks which saw sharp gains in recent price upsurge.
Banks’ provision shortfall soars 34% in Q1
Overall shortfall in provision against both classified and unclassified loans in the country’s banking system swelled by nearly 34 per cent or BDT 22.47 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of this calendar year. The aggregate amount of provisioning shortfall rose to BDT 88.62 billion during the January-March period of 2019 from BDT 66.15 billion three months before, revealed the central bank’s latest statistics.
Govt slashes bank borrowing by 26% for FY 19
The government slashed its bank borrowing target by 26.46 per cent for the outgoing fiscal year (FY), mainly due to the lower implementation of the annual development programme (ADP). The ministry of finance (MoF) has already lowered the government’s bank borrowing target for the FY 2018-19 down to BDT 309.08 billion from the original BDT 420.29 billion, said an official familiar with the government debt management activities.
Trade deficit drops by 10.4pc in July-April
Country’s trade deficit dropped by 10.44 per cent or $1.59 billion in first 10 months of the fiscal year 2018-2019 compared with that in the same period of the last fiscal year due mainly to slowdown in import growth and notable growth in export earnings. Trade deficit eased to $13.68 billion in July-April of FY19 from $15.27 billion in the same period of FY18, showed Bangladesh Bank data released on Wednesday.
BBN/SSR/AD