Bad weather blights mango output prospect

Mango farmers in various parts of the country are concerned by the large number of green mangoes that have been torn from the trees by the recent nor'westers and hailstorms.

The unfavourable weather follows the earlier attack by leaf hoppers which had caused many green mangoes to fall before ripening properly.

Mango farmers told New Age that the dropping of green mangos from the trees would reduce production, particularly in the mango growing districts like Chapainawabganj, Jessore, Kushtia and parts of Rajshahi district.

Deputy director (fruits and vegetables) SM Emdadul Hoque, of the Department of Agricultural Extension's food crops wing, agreed that the production of mangoes would be slightly less than expected, but not considerably because mango trees have been unaffected by bad weather in Dinajpur, parts of Rajshahi and some other districts.

'Mango production will not be satisfactory in my area this year as almost half of the fruits fell from the trees before ripening,' said Shaheruzzaman, a farmer from Sheikhpura village under Keshabpur upazila.

Abdus Samad of Balubagan village under Chapainawabganj Sadar upazila said that mango trees in his area had initially blossomed well, but many of the mangoes had become victims of the attack by leaf hoppers.

He said that they generally use insecticides once a season but they were forced to apply it three times this year, but it had no effect. 'Around 80 per cent of the mangoes had already dropped.'

The New Age correspondent in Jessore reported that mango growers in the district and adjacent areas were disheartened due to the low production.

'Mango production has saddened me this year as it is almost half of that of the previous year, and mangoes are still falling,' said Selim Reza of Buinkara village under Abhay-nagar upazila in Jessore.

 The office of the deputy director of the DAE in Jessore, however, could not give any information on mango production.

'We don't keep the records of mango production,' said an official of the department.

The New Age correspondent in Chapainawabganj reported that mango production is likely to suffer a setback this year due to the unfavourable weather.

According to the DAE office in Chapainawabganj district, this year there are 18,87,806 mango trees on 23,070 hectares of land in the district, and a total of 1,72,000 tonnes of mango was produced from 22,500 hectares of land in 2010.

Source: New Age

MCCI suggests thorough reform of capital market

The Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry has proposed six remedial measures for restoring stability in the capital market and ensuring its healthy growth.

In its quarterly review on the country's economic situation, the premier chamber suggested that the government institute a thorough reform of the system in the capital market by framing the necessary short-term, mid-term and long-term rules and regulations after discussion with all stakeholders.

The government should quickly offload the shares of the selected profitable state-owned enterprises as it promised earlier, said the chamber.

The multinational companies operating in Bangladesh should be asked to enlist themselves in the country's stock exchanges, said the MCCI. 'Such enlisting is compulsory in the neighbouring countries.'

MCCI observed that the Dhaka Stock Exchange and the merchant banks would have to be more active to attract more private issues to the market.

It said that the Dhaka Stock Exchange might persuade the big listed companies to offload a bigger percentage of their shares to meet the growing demand for shares in the market.

Strengthening the market's regulatory mechanism and making it more transparent and accountable is crucially important to increase public confidence in the stock market, MCCI pointed out.

Its review said that in the January-March period, there were mixed performances in Bangladesh's economy with healthy growth in agriculture, strong recovery in the export sector, but decline in foreign aid inflow and remittance.

'Output performance in agriculture has continued to remain healthy, thanks to good weather and favourable government and central bank support for the sector,' said the MCCI.

The rise in private sector credit and the increased volume of letters of credit opened in recent months indicate that manufacturing activities are on the rise, it added.

Despite the installation of some additional generation capacity and some increase in electricity production, the power situation has not improved much in the period.

The average deposit rate increased faster than the average lending rate, said the review which acknowledged the concern of a section of the business community over withdrawal of the lending limit and the increased cost of capital.

The MCCI stressed the need for meeting the challenge of inflation, in particular to contain the prices of food items, and increasing the supply of power.

Source: New Age

BGMEA, BKMEA oppose BTMA’s demand to govt for incentives

The Bangladesh Textiles Mills Association on Tuesday demanded 'special incentives to protect the local factories from being shut down' in the wake of the drastic fall of yarn prices in the international market.

But the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association opposed the demand for increasing the incentive against exports to 15 per cent from the existing five per cent at a meeting in the secretariat.

The textiles and jute minister, Abdul Latif Siddique, while presiding over the meeting said that all the three organisations should sit together to devise a mechanism that will enable them to face the ups and downs in the international market prices.

He, however, said that the situation was not bad enough for the government to provide special incentives to the backward industries in the export-oriented apparel and yarn sector.

'India is selling yarn at the price of cotton…The government should give us special incentives to protect the local backward industries against this sort of dumping which is having an adverse impact on our spinning and textile mills,' said BTMA's president, Jahangir Alamin.

He said that the industries were also being hit hard by the shortage of gas and electricity.

'It is very sad that everyone in the industrial sector wants to operate in a free style. You must discuss your problems together and come to a solution for survival in this competitive situation,' the minister told the meeting.

He said that Bangladesh was taking advantage of cheap labour here in the readymade garment sector.

BKMEA's president Selim Osman, opposing the demand for increased incentive, called upon the textiles mill owners not to increase or decrease the prices of yarn in keeping with the global scenario. 'Let us all sit together and negotiate,' he said.

He said the textiles mill owners made a lot of money when they abruptly increased the price of yarn to seven dollars a kilogram from four dollars a few months back.

Many spinning mill owners stocked yarn at that time to make more money, but the price has now come down to 4.6 dollars, said representatives of the BGMEA and BKMEA. A total of 256 textile mills out of 350, according to BTMA, are export-oriented.

Source: New Age

Tax lawyers demand increase in tax-free income ceiling

Leaders of the Bangladesh Tax Lawyers Association on Tuesday proposed that the National Board of Revenue should raise the ceiling of tax-free income to Tk 3 lakh from Tk 1,65,000 and increase the rate of tax on income exceeding the proposed ceiling.

BTLA leaders placed a set of proposals in a pre-budget meeting at the NBR office. The meeting was presided over by NBR chairman Nasiruddin Ahmed.

The association proposed a multi-layer income tax structure, suggesting 7.5 per cent tax for income of Tk 3 lakh above the proposed ceiling, 15 per cent for the next Tk 3 lakh, 25 per cent for the next Tk 5 lakh, 35 per cent for the next Tk 5 lakh and 40 per cent for more than that.   

BTLA secretary general Kamrul Alam Chowdhury said the government should reduce the value added tax from 15 per cent to 5 per cent.

Kamrul said the increase of direct tax would reduce accumulation of black money as well as purchasing power of a section of people. A decreased purchasing power of the section of people would check the rising inflation, he said.

He suggested that the gain tax on selling of land and other property be increased to 2 per cent in the rural areas and 5 per cent in the urban areas from existing 1 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.

The professional body suggested that by reducing tax at a considerable rate the NBR should attract the undisclosed but legally earned money to be invested in mass employment generating industry.

The BTLA demanded that the NBR withdraw the provision of imposing 5 per cent tax enforced by the clause 158 (2) of Income Tax Law in case of submitting second appeal as it is inhuman and contradictory to people welfare law.

The lawyers urged the NBR to withdraw the provision of imposing value added tax on the services provided by the lawyers. The government reinstated the suspended provision by the finance bill in 2007.

NBR income policy member Aminur Rahman, first secretary Apurba Kanti Das, BTLA president Golam Sarwar, former presidents Abdul Mazid and Abdullah Shahadat Khan, and for secretary general Gias Uddin Chowdhury were present in the meeting.

Source: New Age

Chinese co to invest $2.52m in Mongla EPZ

Bora International Limited, a Chinese Company, will set up a rubber-sheet manufacturing industry in Mongla Export Processing Zone.

This fully foreign owned company will invest $2.515 million in setting up their unit and manufacture rubber-sheet items. The company will also create employment opportunity for 1,239 Bangladeshi nationals.

An agreement to this effect was signed between Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and Bora International Limited on BEFZA Complex in Dhaka recently.

Md Moyjuddin Ahmed, member (investment promotion) of BEPZA, and Peng Tian, managing director of Bora International Limited, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.

Major General ATM Shahidul Islam, executive chairman of BEPZA, Md Shawkat Nabi, secretary, AZM Azizur Rahman, general manager (investment promotion) and other officials of the BEPZA were present at the signing ceremony.

Source: New Age