As per the new rules, Noah can no longer be imported as an ambulance from the current fiscal year as its passenger cabin does not meet the length requirement, according to an NBR official.

However, the move could have little effect on revitalising the market in the past as it was seen that black money holders do not prefer parking funds in stocks when the amnesty was in place.

The revised gross forex reserves target for the current fiscal year ending on June 30 was $29.1 billion. It stood at $24.23 billion on June 5, according to the traditional calculation of the Bangladesh Bank. To meet the goal, another $4.87 billion will have to be added to the reserves by this month.

These credit bureaus will work to determine credit standards by analysing borrower data before sharing it with banks, which will help financial institutions make informed decisions, said the central bank guidelines on the licencing, operating and regulating of credit bureaus.

Trade bodies of the ICT industry in Bangladesh have urged the government to keep web hosting and cloud service companies tax-free to enhance data protection and localisation.

Office hour 10am to 6pm, transaction hour 10am to 4pm

Walton today launched an artificial intelligence (AI) based “AI Doctor”, invented by the team at the Walton Research and Innovation (R&I) Centre.

By re-launching the initiative, the government seeks to increase the flow of money into the economy, although such measures failed to yield any fruitful benefit in the past.

The baggage rule should be amended to stop gold smuggling, the association said in budget reaction

The major index of the Dhaka bourse fell significantly today, the first trading day after the proposed national budget was placed in parliament on June 6

Dhaka stocks fell in the morning trade today and the benchmark index touched the lowest in 38 months as investors’ sentiment continued to remain low due to challenging macroeconomic conditions and rising interest rates.

About the overall budgetary measures, the ICAB said the proposal to finance the budget deficit by borrowing from internal sources may lead to inflation in the next fiscal year.

In Bangladesh, the power generation capacity increased to 30,277 megawatts in 2023-24 from 4,942 MW in 2009, said Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali in his budget speech.

FBCCI President Mahbubul Alam said the deficit in the proposed budget is Tk 256,000 crore, which is 4.6 percent of GDP.

The highest loss, at Tk 6,118 crore, was incurred by the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) in July-April of the fiscal year. Its provisional loss was Tk 11,163 crore in the full year of 2022-23.

However, NPLs rose 38.5 percent year-on-year to Tk 1,82,295 crore by the end of March, accounting for 11.11 percent of the total loans disbursed in the banking system, according to central bank data.

Textile millers and garment makers in Bangladesh yesterday demanded that the government include some of their recommendations in the new national budget as many of the issues they raised remain unaddressed.

A higher effective tax rate is driving away potential investors from Bangladesh, and it may contribute to capital flight and discourage reinvestments, businesspeople and analysts warned yesterday.

Corrective measures were taken in the proposed budget to reduce inflation through demand management and encouraging supply response, said Binayak Sen, the director general at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

Achieving the targets for inflation and gross domestic product in the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 will be challenging for the government, according to the Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCI).