Leading business-leader Yussuf Abdullah Harun has been reelected as the chairman of Asia Insurance Ltd, the company said yesterday.
The former president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) was reelected at the 83rd meeting of the board of directors at Hotel Sonargaon in the city on May 5.
Source: The Daily Star (May 9, 2011)
Nokia was recognised as the best brand in Bangladesh for the second consecutive year and Lux and Grameenphone came out as second and third best brand respectively at the Best Brand Award 2010 programme on Saturday.
Bangladesh Brand Forum (BBF), a private organisation, hosted the event to recognise these brands at a gala event at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel .
BBF and Nielsen Bangladesh have jointly been initiating the award to promote branding.
Nokia, in the mobile handset category, took the top prize as the number one brand. Nokia is a global company with a majority share of the Bangladesh market.
The top 20 best brands for 2010 are Nokia, Lux, Grameenphone, Sunsilk, Parachute, 7-Up, Sony, Close Up, Fair and Lovely, Wheel powder, Banglalink, Rupchada soyabean, Teer atta maida suzi, Pepsodent germi check toothpaste, Maggie noodles, Clear, Teer soyabean, Lifebuoy, Wheel power white, Pepsodent toothpowder.
Syed Ferhat Anwar, chief advisor of BBF, artist Preema Nazia Andaleeb, Khalid Hasan, managing director of Nielsen Bangladesh, and Shariful Islam, founder of BBF, attended the function.
Source: The Daily Star (May 9, 2011)
The central bank has launched an automated clearing house in Barisal yesterday for faster settlement of transactions and payment systems as part of its move to digitalise the banking system.
Twenty-six branches of scheduled banks in Barisal came under the online system of Bangladesh Automated Clearing House (BACH) at Bangladesh Bank (BB).
The system is expected to reduce the settlement time significantly -- from three days to only two hours.
"We moved one step ahead of many other countries by introducing BACH," said BB Deputy Governor Murshid Kuli Khan, who was the chief guest at the inauguration ceremony.
The UK Department for International Development (DFID) funded $8.5 million to implement the BACH.
He said the new BACH system will mainly benefit the business firms and the remittance earners
Under the new automated system, banks will not need to send their cheques physically to the clearing house. They can do it online using machine readable cheques.
However, the banks can also drop their cheques at the BACH where the machine can take image and data of 300 cheques per minute.
Source: The Daily Star (May 9, 2011)
The High Court yesterday ruled upon Bangladesh Bank to explain within four weeks why it should not directed to regulate interest rates charged by Grameen Bank to ensure that the rate is not oppressively high.
The bench of Justice Farid Ahmed and Justice M Shawkat Hossain issued the rule after hearing a writ petition filed by Barrister Masood R Sobhan, a lawyer of the Supreme Court.
The lawyer filed the petition in the form of public interest litigation on Saturday, saying the Grameen Bank realises 27 to 30 percent interest from its borrowers, which, he claimed, is higher than the rate of interest charged by any other commercial bank.
He appealed to the court to direct the BB to re-fix the interest rate of Grameen Bank in consistence with other banks.
Masood also sought directions from the court to direct the central bank to fix a 3 percent interest along with the establishment cost for lending money by Grameen Bank.
The central bank governor, the finance secretary and Grameen Bank have been made respondents to the rule.
Barrister Fatema S Chowdhury appeared for the petitioner.
Source: The Daily Star (May 9, 2011)
Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) yesterday proposed the government take trade and industry friendly taxation measures to assist the productive sectors in the budget for fiscal 2011-12.
The chamber asked for simple, flexible and business friendly amendments to any tax and revenue law in its pre-budget meeting with the chief of National Board of Revenue (NBR) at his office.
"Experiences say that stringent rules and regulations do not help increase revenue. Rather, business friendly and flexible laws ensure better revenue generation and collection," said MCCI President Amjad Khan Chowdhury at the meeting.
The chamber also suggested the government provide a comprehensive package of fiscal measures to support the productive sectors and raise sufficient revenue to meet its growing expenditure and check the budget deficits.
MCCI urged the government to contain inflation and enhance budgetary spending on infrastructure, education, health and social services, which will boost the country's growth potential, create employment and cut poverty.
The MCCI called for measures for fiscal concessions, including income tax, customs duty and value added tax (VAT).
The tax exemption limit for individual taxpayers, now Tk 165,000, should be raised to Tk 250,000, it said.
MCCI proposed a continuation of tax holiday and inclusion of more members from potential sectors in such schemes.
When a company raises its share capital at a value in excess of the face value, the company shall be taxed on the premium over face value at a rate of three percent. "We strongly recommend revoking this provision. It should be noted that in advanced countries like the US and EU, there is no tax on premium over book value," Chowdhury said.
He proposed not to charge the income tax on any new equity other than net income.
The chamber said reduction in the highest rate of tax will encourage the individual being assessed to declare higher incomes than what they do now and hence minimise tax evasion.
Therefore, the chamber suggests that the highest rate of income tax for individuals be reduced from 25 percent to 20 percent.
Source: The Daily Star (May 9, 2011)
The government is allowing the import of eggs and chicks from India although the local poultry industry suffers losses because of surplus production, alleged egg and chick raisers yesterday.
Presently, 1.5 crore pieces of eggs are produced daily against a demand for 1.3 crore pieces. The weekly production of day-old chicks (DOC) of layer and broiler has also exceeded demand. This had lead to a fall in prices of layer and broiler DOC used to produce eggs and meat.
Currently, breeders hatch 70-75 lakh pieces of broiler DOC and 5-5.5 lakh pieces of layer DOC a week against a weekly demand of 60-65 lakh and 3.5 lakh, they claimed at a discussion at National Press Club organised by Breeders Association of Bangladesh.
Breeders said excess supplies have led to a fall in the prices at the hatchery gates. Poultry farmers suffer in the face of rising production costs, mainly due to a spike in feed prices, they added.
''The industry incurs a loss of Tk 5-10 crore daily. It is not understood how the government allows eggs and DOC imports,'' said Breeders Association President Kazi Zahedul Hasan.
Hasan's remark came after the government permitted two firms to import one crore pieces of hatching eggs and day-old chicks from India and other countries.
Breeders also cited OIE-World Organisation for Animal Health and the organisation embargo on the import of eggs and live bird from an avian influenza affected country.
Hasan, also managing director of Kazi Farms, said India is an avian flu affected country.
''It's just not comprehendible how the government allows eggs and live bird imports from a bird-flu stricken country.''
Meanwhile, the prices of eggs and broiler chicken fell below the prices of a year ago.
Poultry retailers in Dhaka now sell a kilogram of chicken meat at Tk 120-125, which was Tk 125-135 a year back. Prices of four-eggs slipped 4 percent to Tk 23-24 from last year.
Breeders and poultry industry stakeholders linked the fall in prices to surplus production from a rise in investment in the sector.
Breeders and industry stakeholders said allowing imports would hurt the local sector further, which employs 60 lakh people.
Md Abdur Razzaque, president of World Poultry Sciences Association, Bangladesh, said the outbreak of avian influenza has already caused losses to the tune of Tk 700 crore.
Source: The Daily Star (May 9, 2011)
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