Sayeed Muhammad: The national budget for fiscal year 2018-19 has set a growth target of 7.8% as Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith rolled out a Tk 4,64,573 crore national budget yesterday. Muhith presented the budget, his 12th and largest ever, to parliament. In FY2016-17, the government’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth target was 7.4%,…
Abrar Hussain: Imp-orted mobile phone handsets will be costlier after Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday proposed a 1 percentage point surcharge increase in his budget speech for fiscal 2018-19 at the parliament. Currently, there are 10% customers’ duty, 15% vat, 2% advance income tax and another 1% surcharge on imported mobile phone handsets, reported The Daily…
Sayeed Muhammad: In the latest budget outline, Bangladesh has reintroduced a 28 percent tax on rice imports in the latest national budget to protect local farmers. The duty on locally produced starches, wheat, maize, potato and cassava, has also been rationalised to 15 percent customs duty and 10 percent regulatory duty. Bangladesh’s rice output from the…
Abrar Hussain: Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, Member of CPD Board of Trustees, on behalf of CPD gave an opinion on the proposed budget for the Fiscal Year 2018-19 yesterday at a press conference. According to Debapriya, many of the current fundamental policies and economic trends present in previous budgets have been represented in the new budget….
Sayeed Muhammad: The government has said the government has planned to introduce a pension scheme for private sector employees in FY2018-19, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith. If implemented, this will the first time in the history of Bangladesh that Prive job holders will enjoy the pension scheme. Introduction of a universal pension scheme would require basic…
Sofian Khan: Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday said that Bangladesh should order an independent investigation into the extrajudicial killings allegation during its latest and ongoing “war on drugs.” According to local media and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the campaign resulted death to over 100 alleged drug peddlers in the hand of country’s law enforcers. It should…
Sabah Mannan: Japa-nese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will have his voice heard ahead of the Trump-Kim Summit as US President Donald Trump plays the role of a host on Thursday. Before heading to Canada for the G7 Summit, Trump and Abe will hold a joint press conference at the White House. Ever since the possibility…
Sofian Khan: President of France Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau came up with affirmation toward “strong multilateralism” before the G7 summit. US President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade policies are predicted to raise serious concerns there. The two leaders in a statement said that they are in for strong, responsible, transparent multilateralism…
Sabah Mannan: Just before the festive season marking Eid-ul-Fitr, a fire had started at the hawkers’ market in Gangina, a commercial hub in Mymensingh town at around 7am on Thursday, reports BDnews24. To control the blaze, nine units of fire fighters from Mymensingh, Muktagachha and Trishal rushed to the spot. President of the hawkers’ association Abdul…
Afrida Ahmed: Ashraf Ghani, Aghan President announced on Thursday an unconditional ceasefire with the Taliban until June 20, which will correspond with the end of the Muslim fasting season but removed all other militant groups such as Islamic state. This decision was made after a meeting of Islamic clerics across the country, who declared a…