Rejaul Karim Byron

The economy grew 3.51 per cent in the fiscal year 2019-20, the slowest pace of expansion in three decades, as the pandemic wreaked havoc across the country, according to the final figure of state-run Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

Development spending in Bangladesh rebounded in the last fiscal year although the implementation rate was still one of the lowest in three decades because of the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic and structural weaknesses.

Bangladesh does not want any measures that promote integration of the Rohingyas into the local society.

Bangladesh will need an estimated $3.7 billion to inoculate 80 percent of the population against Covid in one and a half to two years and achieve herd immunity.

The government is going to give Tk 13,500 and career counselling to 200,000 migrant workers who returned home amid the pandemic.

The government recently distributed cash support worth Tk 450 crore to around 17.24 lakh day labourers, transport workers, and small traders, as part of its recent announcement of a Tk 3,200 crore relief package for the ultra-poor and destitute. It also increased allocations for OMS in urban areas and for food assistance in rural areas through the district administration offices.

Wage labourers in Bangladesh passed a gruelling year as their income growth dropped to a six-year low in the last fiscal year, whereas living expenses went up amid rising inflation, official figures showed.

Inflation spurted to 5.64 per cent in June, the highest in eight months, reflecting the disruptions faced by the supply chain and the rise in the cost of living, official figures showed yesterday.

Prof Dr Shamsul Alam has said project management and their fast implementation will be his top priority after taking charge as the state minister for planning.

Bangladesh can save $19.32 billion over the next five years, or about $4 billion annually, if it can eliminate errors and leakages in the social safety net programmes and cut administrative and transaction costs, according to Asian Development Bank.

The government yesterday announced a Tk 3,200 crore relief package for the ultra-poor and destitute families and the tourism sector -- segments that were dealt a fresh blow by the latest round of hard lockdown to contain the second wave of Covid-19 cases.

Government officials, lawyers, engineers, owners of construction companies, private clinics and doctors mostly whitened their undisclosed wealth last fiscal year.

Every cloud has a silver lining and so has the Covid-19 pandemic. It saved the government and taxpayers around Tk 2,500 crore since March last year.

Just a day after parliament passed the budget, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday sought an additional assistance from Asian Development Bank (ADB) as the government looks to use a record amount in foreign aid in fiscal 2021-22.

Implementation of government development projects by ministries and divisions suffers years of delays as they, in most cases, are formulated without proper feasibility studies and technical designs.

The government is working to take necessary measures to provide cash assistance and food, including rice, edible oil and other commodities to poor who are affected during the countrywide “strict lockdown” to be imposed from Thursday.

The amnesty to legalise undisclosed income without any question and on payment of 10 per cent tax is likely to continue in the upcoming fiscal year for individuals who will make a new investment to set up factories, officials said.

Bangladesh’s historically low foreign direct investment, which had dropped 10.8 percent to $2.6 billion last year, is unlikely to pick up in the near future as investment commitments remain lukewarm, according to the UNCTAD.

Despite a decline in the number of wholesale and retail trade units in Bangladesh, employment in the sector nearly trebled to 1.41 crore in the past decade, according to the provisional data of the Wholesale and Retail Trade Survey 2020.

Funds parked by Bangladeshi individuals and firms in Swiss banks dropped 6.6 percent to 563 million Swiss francs (about Tk 5,215 crore) in 2020, the third year in a row in which it declined.