Sohel Parvez

It is the story of dreams and despair. Rise and fall. It is the story of anguish and cheer. For Bangladesh’s startups, all appear to be true.

If you happen to be on the Padma or Meghna rivers for a cruise or are travelling to the country’s southern part, you will in no way miss a sporadic presence of numerous slow-moving small and large vessels alongside their sudden blasts of horns.

Maize imports rose by 54 per cent last fiscal year in the wake of crop losses for heavy rainfall and flood during the peak harvesting and drying periods of the summer crop, according to feed millers and import data.

Haji Nanna Biriyani, a popular restaurant in Old Dhaka that serves up a mouthwatering selection of sub-continental and rice-oriented dishes, has reopened its doors to customers nearly a month ago.

Workers in the agriculture, industries and services sectors witnessed a further drop in wage growth in July as they were shut of income opportunities due to the economic headwinds brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

With the soaring prices of rice affecting the poor, the food ministry has taken steps to assess the stock of food grain at millers and traders end.

The tax authority has yet to get a good response from the holders of undisclosed money despite offering amnesty that none will question the sources of income this fiscal year, said its chief yesterday.

Electronic fiscal devices (EFDs), the much-talked-about e-cash registers promoted by the revenue authority as a tool to curb tax dodging, finally began to show up at retail stores in cities.

Farmers are getting higher prices for raw jute after cyclone Amphan and prolonged floods damaged part of their cash crop, but millers are not happy with the price spiral, which they say will push up production costs and affect demand from buyers abroad.

The government is considering giving priority to leasing out state-owned jute mills to the private sector so that production could resume within a short time, according to officials of the textiles and jute ministry and industry stakeholders.

Bangladesh has more than 180,000 officially registered companies. Yet, roughly 35,000 of those businesses, that is just one-fifth of them, file income tax returns regularly -- a dismal picture even though rules make it compulsory for businesses to file returns annually.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has brought about many changes to everyday life, especially the way people deal with the outside world.

Paddy prices have shot up to very high margins for a decline in its availability in suburban haats and bazars owing to big farmers and seasonal stockists taking it slow while releasing the staple.

AB Bank has put the factory of Aman Feed and its collateral on sale for its failure to pay Tk 268.40 crore in loans and interest within the sanctioned timeframe of July.

The National Board of Revenue is finally going to roll out the much-talked electronic fiscal devices (EFDs) as part of its effort to curb evasion of value-added tax paid by customers while purchasing goods and services.

The current aman paddy cultivation season has come as a blessing for public and private seed producers and marketers as farmers, encouraged by higher prices of boro, bought a bigger amount of seeds this time to maximise profits by increasing harvest.

The recent nationwide closure of all economic activities for two-and-a-half months has doubled extreme poverty in Bangladesh, raising the number of the country’s ultra-poor from 10.5 per cent of the population to 20.5 per cent as of June, according to the Planning Commission (PC).

Airline passengers will face higher ticket prices from next week onwards as the aviation authority has imposed new fees aimed at funding airport development and strengthening security, according to a notice from the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB).

Redwanur Rahman Jewel’s dreams had come true when he opened his bookstore in May last year as it soon turned into a veritable hub for readers and writers alike.

The customs authority has relaxed its rules in regards to the submission of Certificates of Origin (CoO), a declaration of the place of manufacture for any product, for goods imported under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) trade pact in the SAARC bloc.