Sohel Parvez

The workers’ demands are logical so owners should sit together to address this and restore stability to the garment industry, the country’s largest export-earner, said Kalpona Akter, president of Bangladesh Garment & Industrial Workers Federation.

Bangladesh may miss its target for cultivation of the Aman rice, the second biggest rice crop, this year as farmers in the eastern districts are unlikely to transplant the seedlings again in fields that were washed away by last month’s devastating flood.

The spread between interest rates on deposits and loans rose to 6.03 percent, the highest in two decades, indicating that banks are making money at the expense of depositors and borrowers.

When the Awami League (AL) announced its manifesto with the slogan ‘Charter for Change’ ahead of the general elections in 2008, it drew applause from various sections of society

Rice acreage and production in Bangladesh are likely to decline because of recent floods, which would affect paddy of the Aus and Aman seasons, said the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) at the end of last week.

Bangladesh’s sugar imports fell sharply in fiscal year 2023-24 as refiners stayed away from placing orders to foreign buyers in the face of an illegal influx of the sweetener through the borders.

Bangladesh’s overall exports fell 4.34 percent year-on-year in FY24 due to lower shipments of ready made garments (RMG), reflecting sluggishness in industrial activities and the economy.

Our journey to the Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ), an eco-friendly industrial area in Chattogram, began on a sunny morning.

Bangladesh’s exports declined 4.28 percent year-on-year in July-May of 2023-24, said the central bank yesterday after correcting the shipment data published by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) earlier.

The annual average price spike in Bangladesh surged to its highest level in 12 years in the just-concluded fiscal year despite easing in June, reflecting the persistent erosion of real income and the deterioration of the living standards of low-income groups.

The central bank discovered six types of statistical wrongdoing that inflated export data, a development that led to a multibillion-dollar correction.

S Alam Vegetable Oil Ltd and S Alam Super Edible Oil Ltd have unpaid value added tax (VAT) and consequent penalty worth over Tk 7,000 crore, as they allegedly evaded VAT through various means, including by presenting lower purchase and sales data in VAT returns between 2019 and 2022, according to an audit by the NBR’s VAT wing.

With penalty, they owe government over Tk 7,000cr; S Alam Group director says they didn’t ‘evade even a single taka in VAT’

Every US dollar went for Tk 118 on the interbank platform of Bangladesh yesterday, the highest since the central bank loosened its grip on the exchange rate by letting market dynamics determine the prices.

Bangladeshi nationals and banks kept 17.71 million Swiss francs (CHF) in deposits last year in the banks of Switzerland, the lowest on record, reflecting the fading attractiveness of the country among the wealthy to park money.

The government has cut distribution plans for food grains for the upcoming fiscal year of 2024-25, which economists say is an illogical decision since food inflation has soared above 10 percent in the past two months

The tax measures unveiled yesterday for 2024-25 are not going to provide any relief to taxpayers.

The development comes after Bangladesh Bank relaxed the rules and allowed banks to receive funds from the OBUs amounting to up to 40 percent of their regulatory capital to settle payment obligations.

The government is expanding the size of the national budget every year. However, it has fallen short of attaining its targets over the years, be that in terms of revenue collection or development expenditure.

Data by the finance ministry showed that the allocation for the pensions and interest payments account for 30 percent of the total social security programme fund of Tk 126,090 crore for the current fiscal year of 2023-24.