Soaring demand spotlights secret NY gold hoard

If there's one place a James Bond villain — or even some actual governments — would love raiding today, it's the basement of a sombre building in lower Manhattan: the world's biggest gold vault.

Gold prices hit a record $1,632.8 an ounce Friday, reflecting a nervous rush by private and national investors from stocks, dollars and euros to the safe-haven commodity.

And the biggest single pile of the stuff on the planet lies deep beneath the New York branch of the US Federal Reserve Bank, a stone's throw from the Stock Exchange.

On a visit, a guide from the bank revealed the 7,000-tonne hoard gleaming softly in a vault carved from Manhattan's bed rock, five stories under the Big Apple's teeming streets.

Cast in bricks, stacked ceiling-high in blue-painted, caged boxes, the heap is worth a staggering $350 billion.

As it happens, the United States is the world's biggest Goldfinger with 8,133 tons in reserves, more than twice as much as number two Germany.

But the bulk of that treasure is stored at the famous Fort Knox and at West Point, while the gold below New York mostly belongs to 36 foreign governments seeking not just financial, but physical safety.

The owners' identities are kept secret — all part of extraordinary security measures at the bank, which, barring in movies like the third 'Die Hard,' has never been robbed.

An AFP reporter had to show identity papers through a bulletproof, soundproof screen before even entering the bank's ornate lobby. From there, visitors were escorted into the subterranean elevator.

The vault is entered not through a door, but a tunnel secured by a gargantuan steel cylinder that rotates to block or open access.

Once inside, among the towers of gold, it takes three separate employees selected from different departments to open each triple-locked strongbox.

As if the fortress and swarms of armed guards were not enough, AFP's reporter was ordered to put away his notebook in case he sketched the layout. Snap photographs? Forget about it.

Source : New Age

India banks see pressure on assets

Lenders will look to pass on Tuesday's interest rate increase to customers sooner than later to maintain profitability, even though at the cost of lending growth, which is seen slowing down.

The Reserve Bank of India, one of the most aggressive central banks globally, on Tuesday raised repo rate by a surprise 50 basis points to fight inflation. It also cut credit growth forecast for banks to 18 per cent from 19 per cent projected earlier.

Bankers have told the RBI that response to the monetary policy will be more rapid this time, the Reserve Bank of India's governor Duvvuri Subbarao said at the post policy press conference on Tuesday.

Private sector YES Bank was the first to announce a rate raise earlier in the day while state-run IDBI Bank said its asset liability committee will meet later in the day to take a call on interest rates.

'Any increase in input cost will have to be passed on,' said Pratip Chaudhuri, chairman of India's No 1 lender State Bank of India. 'There is some impact on interest rate sensitive sectors such as real estate, vehicle loans, infrastructure.'

Several lenders including HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra, ING Vysya Bank and YES Bank, have warned about slowing loan growth compared with a year earlier, although they expected margins to stabilise by end of the year.

Higher rate of interest could also 'increase pressure' on asset quality, going forward, said MD Mallya, chairman and managing director of state-run Bank of Baroda.

State-run banks in India account for about 70 per cent of total loans.

Shares of some major Indian banks fell as much as 4 per cent after RBI's surprise policy action on renewed concerns about credit growth and maintaining net interest margins.

The BSE Bank index fell as much as 2.8 per cent during the day before closing down 2.46 per cent. The 30-share BSE index closed 1.87 per cent lower.

Most Indian lenders, which posted earnings for the June quarter this month, have shown a decline in net interest margins - a key gauge of profitability for banks - either on sequential or on year-on-year basis.

Although lenders do not expect a 'substantial' impact on margins going forward, there could be a compression of 5-10 basis points, Aditya Puri, managing director of HDFC Bank, told reporters.

'Banks may not fear to pass on the interest rate and they might not go for aggressive deposit mobilisation. So margins may not compress significantly from these levels,' said a senior analyst at a local brokerage who did not wish to be named.

Source : New Age

DSE opens corporate governance dept

The Dhaka Stock Exchange on Sunday opened corporate governance and financial reporting department to bring more transparency among listed companies.

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Khairul Hossain inaugurated the department which will examine mainly financial reports submitted by the listed firms. The listed firms are required to submit financial statements to the bourse every three months.

The DSE department, housed at a building adjacent to the DSE building at Motijheel, will have to report to the commission on their activities and findings on a regular basis.

Khairul said the DSE's capacity in monitoring activities of listed companies was strengthened with the opening of the new department.

'It will bring transparency in the financial reporting of the companies and thus will help the investors to take their investment decisions more accurately,' he said. 

DSE president Shakil Rizvi said, 'The purpose of the department is to provide supports to the regulators and other stakeholders in scrutinising financial reports submitted by the listed companies.'

The corporate governance and financial reporting department will look into every financial disclosure made by the listed companies and report to the SEC in every month, he said.

The board members of the DSE and members of the SEC were present on the occasion.  

On July 13, the bourses at a meeting with the SEC agreed to set up separate corporate finance departments within last month after the stock market regulatory body proposed to them that it would launch such departments to check and address the practices of financial manipulations.

There have been allegations that many listed firms inflate financial reports by showing higher earnings and profits, especially when they submit un-audited quarterly reports.

Source : New Age

ADP ‘implementation’ 92pc in last fiscal

'Implementation' rate of the development projects under the revised annual development programme for the last fiscal year touched 92 per cent, one per cent higher than the fiscal 2009-10.

The 2010-11 fiscal's 'implementation' rate was not only 1 per cent higher than fiscal 2009-10, it also witnessed Tk 6,913 crore more expenditure than that of fiscal 2009-10 out of the revised ADP allocation of Tk 35,880 crore, according to latest figures of the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division.

The IMED figures revealed that Tk 32,830 crore was utilised during the last fiscal, while the amount was Tk 25,917 crore during the 2009-10 fiscal.

Of the total expenditure of Tk 32,830 crore, the share of local resources was Tk 23,166 crore (97 per cent) while that of project assistance was Tk 9,665 crore (81 per cent).

According to the IMED, the labour and employment ministry achieved the highest 'implementation' rate of 118 per cent (Tk 20.65 crore, exceeding its allotment) while the Internal Resources Division the lowest 3 per cent (Tk 0.55 crore).

Apart from the labour and employment ministry, six other ministries and divisions achieved 100 per cent 'implementation' rate.

Source : New Age

BB asks banks, NBFIs not to show inflated assets, profit

The Bangladesh Bank on Sunday said the banks and non-bank financial institutions were showing inflated assets and profit after tax in their financial statements.

The BB asked the banks and NBFIs to assess the profit and assets after deducting the provisions for loans, advances, and investments.

The central bank directed the banks and NBFIs to follow the guidelines in two circulars, one issued to the banks and the other to the financial institutions.

According to the circulars, some of the banks and NBFIs are preparing financial statements by creating 'deferred tax assets', considering classified loans, advances, leases, and investments (in case of Islamic Shariah-based banks) as 'recoverable in the future' or 'to be written off'. This is resulting in inflated profits after tax and assets of the banks and NBFIs concerned.

Deferred tax is an accounting concept, also known as future income tax, meaning a future tax liability or asset, resulting from temporary differences or timing differences between the accounting value of assets and liabilitiesand their value for tax purposes.

The central bank asked the banks and the NBFIs to provide full financial information following the new guidelines.

Although the banks and NBFIs are supposed to reserve provisions for classified loans, advances, leases, and investments but they are not doing it properly, the BB observed.

The BB said the banks and NBFIs will have to include deferred tax asset and deferred tax liability in their financial statements and the estimate of deferred tax asset should be made after reserving provision for classified loans, advances, leases and investments (in case of Islamic Shariah-based banks).

It said, according to the Bangladesh Accounting Standard, if Deferred Tax Asset on the items on which income tax waiver will be available in

the future is included

in the accounts then detailed description of those items have to be mentioned in the 'notes to the accounts'.

Under no circumstances, Deferred Tax Asset and Deferred Tax Liability can be shown as net asset and liability in the balance sheet, the central bank said.

Source : New Age

Farmers stage demo to stop building brick field in cropland

Hundreds of farmers of village Baldhara in Manikganj staged demonstration on Saturday

demanding stop of building further brick kilns on their croplands.

They brought out a procession and held rally in protest at building brick kilns on their croplands.

The speakers at the rally said that the environment of Baldhara areas was being imbalanced due to making a large numbers of brick kilns on crop lands.

The production of crops was reduced in one third and the environment was being polluted, they said. The people especially children and elderly were becoming sick.

The speakers said that 14 brick field owners made 22 brick kilns within two square kilometre areas of the Baldhara union.

The farmers said that they would not give their paddy field for making the brick field.

'We will give life. But we will not give our paddy land', said Abdul Karim, owner of 2 bighas of land.

The farmers alleged that Abdul Jolil of village Ramkantapur had built two brick fields on

crop land at village Baldhara. He was grabbing neighbouring croplands to construct brick kiln, they said.

Member of Ward No. 4 of Baldhara Union Parishad, Mohammad Ibrahim, said that the environment was destroying for building brick kilns one after another.

Brick kiln owner Abdul Jolil said that he had certificate of environment directorate and license of BST.  'I am not constructing more brick kilns,' Jolil said.

The farmers lodged complaint to local administration. They also sent the copies to deferent ministries and environment directorate.

When contacted, deputy director of environment directorate in Manikganj, said that Abdul Jolil had two certificates for two brick kilns in the name of SOFUR-1 and SOFUR-2.

When contacted, deputy commissioner of Manikganj, Munshi Shahabuddin Ahmed, said that they would take action according to rules.

On the other side, farmers of village Solondi under Manikganj Sadar upazila are also protesting the planning of making a brickfield on their crop lands.

Source : New Age

Two killed in lightning strike in Gaibandha

Two people were killed and four others injured in separate lightning strikes at Ramnather Bhita and Ballamjhar villages in sadar upazila of Gaibandha Sunday noon.

The deceased were Babu Mia, 25, son of Ghani Master of Bhita village and Sharifa Aktar, 35, wife of Zahurul Islam of Ballamjhar.

Witnesses said thunderbolt struck Sharifa when she was working at the compound of her house leaving her instantly killed in the afternoon.

At the same time Babu was knocked down and instantly killed by thunderbolt when he was harvesting at a cropland near his village home.

Besides, four other people were injured in separate lightning strikes in different villages.

They are: Sada Rani, wife of Nurun Nabi and Jahanara Begum, 35, wife of Monohor Ali of Ballamjhar village, Ruly, 35, wife of Shahdat Hossain of Khamar Ballamjhar village and Rezaul, 25, son

of Bachcha Mia of Ramnather Bhita village.

The injured were admitted to Gaibandha Modern Hospital.

Source : New Age

No compromise regarding ensuring quality of higher education: UGC chairman

The University Grant Commission chairman Professor Dr AK Azad Chowdhury said a number of private universities were engaged in selling out certificates which must be closed.

'There is no compromise regarding ensuring quality of higher education,' he said on Saturday while addressing as the chief guest at the publication ceremony of two books of former vice-chancellor of the Chittagong University Professor Abdul Mannan.

Professor Dr Anupam Sen, VC of Premier University, presided over the publication ceremony of the books, Uchchha Shikkha O Prasonggik Bhabna and Protikriti: Ai Desh Ai Somoy, held at the Theater Institute, Chittagong.

Professor Anowarul Azim Arif, VC of Chittagong University, Professor Sikandar Khan, VC of East Delta University,  Professor Alamgir Mohammed Sirajuddin, former VC of CU, Professor Dr Moinul Islam, former president of Bangladesh Economics Association, veteran revolutionary Binod Bihari Chowdhury and journalist Abul Momen addressed the ceremony among others.

Professor AK Azad also said that they had taken measures to close a number of universities engaged in selling out certificates. These universities would be closed soon, he said.

He also said that the book Uchchha Shikkha O Prasonggik Bhabna by Professor Mannan was a proper contemporary document. The writer had placed the real scenario and his expectation to the politicians in both of his books.

'Professor Mannan has observed the society with a deep vision and praised what is acceptable apart from criticising the unacceptable aspects,' Azad said.

'I criticise different faults of the pro-liberation, democracy and secular forces constructively keeping in mind so that the opposite camp can not gain benefits from its,' he said.

The other speakers said Professor Mannan had been discharging his social responsibilities properly adding that the necessity of both his books would never be ended although he had focused on contemporarily issues.

Source : New Age

Contraband medicine worth Tk 10 lakh recovered

The Rapid Action Battalion recovered a large quantity of contra banned medicines from a thread selling shop at Kaliganj in Jhenaidah on Sunday.

The law enforcers arrested the owner of the shop, Saiful Islam, for his alleged involvement in the drug business.

The RAB sources said that acting on a tip-off, a contingent of RAB raided the thread selling shop owned by Saiful Islam at noon. They recovered a large quantity of drugs worth over Tk 10 lakh from the spot.

Major Sakhawat Hossain, camp commander of the RAB in Jhenaidah, could not inform the exact figure till Sunday afternoon as the recovery campaign was going on.

A case was filed under Special Power Act with local police, RAB official said.

Source : New Age

Rajshahi Survey Instt students go on demo

The students of Rajshahi Survey Institute on Sunday went on demonstration, blocked highway to push for their five-point demand inclusive of bringing the institute under education ministry.

Their others demands included treating survey engineer as a second class employee, immediate solution to residential, teacher and equipment crises.

Source : New Age

Dyeing factories fined for dumping untreated waste into Turag

A Department of Environment team on Sunday realised Tk 71.36 lakh in fine from two dyeing factories, one in the capital and the other in an area adjacent to it, for not using any effluent treatment plant and thus polluting the River Turag.

DoE director (monitoring and enforcement) Munir Chowdhury, accompanied by members of the Rapid Action Battalion-2, raided Landmark Fabrics Limited and Mark Terry Limited and found that the factories were discharging untreated liquid waste into the river.

The team tested the waste and found that the oxygen level in it was only 0.32, and .12 mg per litre

The water of Turag at the spots, where liquid waste was being dumped, was found to contain 0.52mg of oxygen per litre, a DoE release said.

The normal quantity of oxygen in water should range between 4.5mg and 4.8mg per litre.

The factories were ordered to stop releasing waste into the river immediately or their operations would be banned.

Source : New Age

BNP demands rationing for low-income groups

The opposition BNP on Sunday demanded reintroduction of food rationing for the labourers and low-income groups to enable them to cope with the unprecedented essential price escalation.

Speaking at a demonstration in the city BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that Awami League had forgotten its pre election pledge that if voted to power its first action would be to bring down essential prices.

He said that after Awami League returned to power rice, pulses, cooking oil, flour and other daily necessities are no more affordable to the common people.

The prices shot up ten times since the AL led government took power, he said.

He said that the low-income and working people were groaning under the burden of soaring prices.

Fakhrul criticised banning rickshaws from several city streets without providing alternative employment for the pullers.

He said, 'This is a government for the rich.'

He said, 'As this government does not care about the poor working people, it did not hesitate to ban rickshaws from so many city streets.'

Jatiyatabdi Rickshaw o Van Sramik Malik Samanway Parishad organised the human chain in front of the National Press Club in protest against police harassment of rickshaw pullers and banning rickshaws from several city streets.

BNP economic affairs secretary Abdus Salam, Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal executive president Abul Kasem Chowdhury, general secretary Zafrul Hasan and rickshaw van malik sramik samanway parishad president Nurul Islam Khan Nasim also addressed the demonstrators.

Source : New Age

Sheershanews editor arrested

Sheershanews.com editor Ekramul Huq was arrested from his Mogbazar house early Sunday.

A senior journalist of Sheershanews said Ekramul Huq was arrested on charge of extortion from one Giasuddin Talukdar.

Kalabagan thana police arrested him.

Ekramul Huq has been placed under two-day police remand for interrogation in connection with the extortion case.

The police produced him before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's court, Dhaka, at 12:30pm seeking three-day remand for interrogation and the court granted the remand rejecting his bail petition.

In his remand plea Kalabagan thana sub-inspector Atiqur Rahman, who is also the investigation officer of the case prayed that the accused demanded Tk 20 lakh as extortion money from Giasuddin Talukder, the complainant of the case and owner of 'Balaka National, a business house.

Playing down the allegation, Ekramul Huq's counsel Sheikh Hemayet Hossain submitted that the case filed against his client was fabricated, false and baseless and lodged with ill motive as Ekramul Huq on several occasion published investigative reports in his media on corruption and irregularities by a section of business people.

After hearing metropolitan magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor passed the order rejecting the bail petition submitted by Sheikh Hemayet Hossain, who is also the president of Dhaka Ainjibi Samity.

Source : New Age

Load-shedding in Ramadan estimated at 500-700MW

The power distribution agencies will have to go for 500MW to 700MW load-shedding in Ramadan, said power secretary Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad on Sunday.

Coming out of a meeting on the power situation in Ramadan, he told reporters that the Power Division emphasised that electricity load management should focus on consumers' comfort in the month. Energy adviser Tawfique-e-Elahi Chowdhury attended the meeting.

Azad said the power distribution agencies were also instructed not to continue load-shedding of power in an area for more than half an hour at a stretch.

In reply to a query about the present power situation of the country, he claimed it was improving, compared to the situation prevailing in the previous year, as the overall electricity generation had increased.

'But, the use of air conditioners has been rising day by day, causing a significant increase in the demand for power,' he said.

Both the adviser and the secretary urged people to use fans instead of air conditioners, particularly in the mosques, so that the demand for electricity would not increase much in Ramadan.

Tawfique said the power distribution agencies were also instructed to motivate people to refrain from excessive use of light at markets, shops, community centres, mosques, etc.

Meeting sources said 179 out of the 1,663 mosques covered by the Dhaka Power Distribution Company used ACs.

Azad said 20 to 25 ACs consumed one megawatt of power.

The meeting, however, did not take any decision about whether shops and markets should be closed at 8:00pm or not as the labour and employment ministry was the proper authority to make a decision in this regard, said a Power Division official.

Azad also told the reporters that the power generation in the country would increase by around 300MW within a day or two.

He said two new power plants under the Power Development Board would start supplying power to the national grid, besides power generation would also increase in a few old plants after completion of their renovation.

Meeting sources said high officials would be at every power distribution substation and control room to monitor the power situation in Ramadan.

After the meeting, the Power Division and the PDB signed a deal with Baraka Patenga Power Limited for setting up a 50MW power plant at Patenga in Chittagong.

According to the deal, the state-run PDB will purchase power at 9.881 cents per unit (kilowatt-hour) or Tk 7.312 per unit ($1=Tk 74) for 15 years from the furnace oil-fired power plant.

The company will have to start supplying power to the national grid from October 30, 2012, otherwise it will have to count penalty per day for the delay.

Source : New Age

Moon sighting body meets today

The National Moon Sighting Committee will meet in the capital today to ascertain the commencement of the month of Ramadan.

Anyone having sighted the moon anywhere in the country has been requested to inform over telephone, fax or in any other way. Phone numbers are: 9559493, 9559643, 9555947, 9556407, 9558337 and fax: 02-9563397.

Source : New Age

Cop killed in road mishap

A police officer, Habibul Islam Habib, died at Rangpur Medical College Hospital Saturday night after being seriously injured in a road accident at Saidpur in Nilphamari, the police said.

Source : New Age

SEC to bring market manipulators to book

The Securities and Exchange Commission is set to take legal actions against some large investors for their involvement in market manipulation in January, said officials of the capital market watchdog.

'Based on the probe report and the directive of the finance ministry, we have conducted investigation into the roles of some big market players in the stocks debacle of January,' said SEC member Helal Uddin Nizami.

He said the commission had finalised its preparations for filing cases against a number of investors including

Sayed Sirajuddoula and his wife Rasheda Akter for bulk and serial trading of shares.

For example, in the statement of fact prepared for the case to be lodged against Sirajuddoula and Rasheda Akter, the equities market regulator has accused them of making artificial active trading of Peoples Leasing shares, which caused the price of the scrip to shoot up abnormally.

According to the SEC statement, they had pushed the price of Peoples Leasing shares up by trading 2,22,700 shares of the company between themselves from June 30 to November 4, 2010. After each of the Peoples Leasing shares had been split into 10, reducing its face value from Tk 100 to Tk 10, the two accused investors sold their holdings and booked a hefty profit.

The commission, in line with a recommendation made by the probe committee, is also set to take departmental actions against an SEC member of that time.

Helal Uddin said the commission sent an investigation report to the finance ministry against former SEC member Mansur Alam. 'We have sent an enquiry report to the finance ministry for taking action against Mansur Alam.'

The commission also formed a two-member committee to investigate into the allegations against SEC executive directors Anwarul Kabir Bhuiyan and ATM Tariquzzaman, he said.

Helal Uddin said, 'The commission finalised the terms of reference of the enquiry committee, which will start working soon.' 

The probe committee formed earlier, however, failed to specify any charge of being involved in the stock market scam against Tariquzzaman. 

After the relentless fall in share prices in December to January last, the government formed a high-powered probe committee, headed by Khondoker Ibrahim Khaled, to investigate into the market crash.

The three-member committee, after conducting a three-month investigation, submitted the report to the government with a number of case studies of market manipulation. The committee also placed a 25-point recommendation including conducting further enquiries about the people suspected to be involved in market manipulation, reconstructing the SEC, and terminating some of its officials including the sitting chairman Ziaul Haque Kahondker.

Finance minister AMA Muhith, while making the report public, said the government would take the recommendations into consideration and specified some term-by-term goals to bring back stability in the capital market. 

Source : New Age

BNP, 16 other parties seek time

Out of 38 registered political parties 17 including, BNP, were unable to hand in their audited financial statements for the last calendar year to the Election Commission by Sunday, the deadline.

According to an EC handout, 21 registered political parties, including ruling Awami League and opposition Jamaat-e-Islami gave their audited financial statements.

BNP and 10 other political parties—Jatiya Party (Manju), Bangladesh Jatiya Party,  Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, Islami Oikya Jote,Ganatantri Party, Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan, Bangladesh Muslim League and Islamic Front Bangladesh—sought more time for handing in their statements.

BNP and some of the parties sought two more months for handing in their statements.

The Election Commission said it was yet to take a decision whether it would extend the deadline.

In 2008, the EC introduced the requirement for the registered political parties to give their audited financial statements to ensure their financial transparency.

The parties were given seven months, beginning January, to comply with the provision.

However, neither the Election Commission nor the political parties disclosed to the media the contents of audited financial statements.

A two-member ruling Awami League team led by deputy office secretary Mrinal Kanti Das submitted party's audited financial statement to the Election Commission on Sunday.

A three-member opposition BNP team led by the party's assistant office secretary Abdul Latif Jony handed in a letter to the Election Commission seeking two more months for giving the report.

Asked why BNP sought more time for handing in its financial statement, Jony said, 'The Election Commission wrote to us at the beginning of July seeking the financial statement.'

'Obviously, we could not prepare the statement in such short time,' he said.   

Asked by waiting reporters, Mrinal Kanti declined to disclose the contents of the financial statement of the ruling party.

He said the financial statement, Awami League submitted following the Representation of People Order, 'is now the property of the Election Commission.'

 Mrinal said the commission would now decide whether it would make the report public.

The Election Commission secretary Muhammad Sadique told reporters that the EC would take a decision whether or not to extend the deadline requested by political parties.

Asked whether the commission had any mechanism to crosscheck the audited financial statements, he said the veracity of the reports would be looked into, though the commission did not have enough manpower for the task.

He said the commission would crosscheck the reports once it got the manpower.     

The parties which have submitted the reports are AL, Jatiya Party (Ershad), Jamaat, Liberal Democratic Party, Krishak Sramik Janata League, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bangladesh National Awami Party, Zaker Party, Bangladesh Tarikat Federation, National People's Party, Jamiaate Ulama-e-Islam Bangladesh, Gana Forum, Progressive Democratic Party, Bangladesh National Awami Party-Bangladesh NAP, Bangladesh Jatiya Party, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Bangladesh Islami Front, Jatiya Ganatantrik Party, Revolutionary Workers' Party of Bangladesh and Khelafat Majlish.   

Seven political parties which neither submitted their financial statements nor sought time for  doing it included,  Bangladesh Samyabadi Dal, Workers' Party of Bangladesh, Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu), Gana Front, Oikyabaddha Nagarik Andolan and Bangladesh Kalyan Party.  

Section 9 (b) of the Political Party Registration Rules requires every registered political party to give financial statement for the immediate past calendar year audited by a registered chartered accounting firm to the EC by July 31.

The RPO stipulates cancellation of registration of political parties for failure to comply with the provision for three consecutive years.

On July 4, the EC wrote to the registered political parties to remind them about the deadline.

Source : New Age

BNP, 16 other parties seek time

Out of 38 registered political parties 17 including, BNP, were unable to hand in their audited financial statements for the last calendar year to the Election Commission by Sunday, the deadline.

According to an EC handout, 21 registered political parties, including ruling Awami League and opposition Jamaat-e-Islami gave their audited financial statements.

BNP and 10 other political parties—Jatiya Party (Manju), Bangladesh Jatiya Party,  Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, Islami Oikya Jote,Ganatantri Party, Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan, Bangladesh Muslim League and Islamic Front Bangladesh—sought more time for handing in their statements.

BNP and some of the parties sought two more months for handing in their statements.

The Election Commission said it was yet to take a decision whether it would extend the deadline.

In 2008, the EC introduced the requirement for the registered political parties to give their audited financial statements to ensure their financial transparency.

The parties were given seven months, beginning January, to comply with the provision.

However, neither the Election Commission nor the political parties disclosed to the media the contents of audited financial statements.

A two-member ruling Awami League team led by deputy office secretary Mrinal Kanti Das submitted party's audited financial statement to the Election Commission on Sunday.

A three-member opposition BNP team led by the party's assistant office secretary Abdul Latif Jony handed in a letter to the Election Commission seeking two more months for giving the report.

Asked why BNP sought more time for handing in its financial statement, Jony said, 'The Election Commission wrote to us at the beginning of July seeking the financial statement.'

'Obviously, we could not prepare the statement in such short time,' he said.   

Asked by waiting reporters, Mrinal Kanti declined to disclose the contents of the financial statement of the ruling party.

He said the financial statement, Awami League submitted following the Representation of People Order, 'is now the property of the Election Commission.'

 Mrinal said the commission would now decide whether it would make the report public.

The Election Commission secretary Muhammad Sadique told reporters that the EC would take a decision whether or not to extend the deadline requested by political parties.

Asked whether the commission had any mechanism to crosscheck the audited financial statements, he said the veracity of the reports would be looked into, though the commission did not have enough manpower for the task.

He said the commission would crosscheck the reports once it got the manpower.     

The parties which have submitted the reports are AL, Jatiya Party (Ershad), Jamaat, Liberal Democratic Party, Krishak Sramik Janata League, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bangladesh National Awami Party, Zaker Party, Bangladesh Tarikat Federation, National People's Party, Jamiaate Ulama-e-Islam Bangladesh, Gana Forum, Progressive Democratic Party, Bangladesh National Awami Party-Bangladesh NAP, Bangladesh Jatiya Party, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Bangladesh Islami Front, Jatiya Ganatantrik Party, Revolutionary Workers' Party of Bangladesh and Khelafat Majlish.   

Seven political parties which neither submitted their financial statements nor sought time for  doing it included,  Bangladesh Samyabadi Dal, Workers' Party of Bangladesh, Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu), Gana Front, Oikyabaddha Nagarik Andolan and Bangladesh Kalyan Party.  

Section 9 (b) of the Political Party Registration Rules requires every registered political party to give financial statement for the immediate past calendar year audited by a registered chartered accounting firm to the EC by July 31.

The RPO stipulates cancellation of registration of political parties for failure to comply with the provision for three consecutive years.

On July 4, the EC wrote to the registered political parties to remind them about the deadline.

Source : New Age

BNP prepares for movement against govt after Eid

The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party is making preparations for an all-out movement against the government after Eid-ul-Fitr and, in addition to finding news allies, mobilising local units and front organisations by holding programmes amid in-party feuds at many levels.

The party is now focusing on issues of public sufferings such as soaring prices and power, gas and water shortage buts is prime focus is on the restoration of the caretaker government provision aimed at holding fair elections and mobilising public opinions against the 15th amendment to the constitution.

Party policymakers said that it had decided to wage a fully-fledged movement after Eid to overthrow the government. They said that they were yet to decide the pattern of the agitation programmes.

Some members on the party's standing committee

said that continued programmes such as demonstrations, rallies and road marches might be announced after Eid.

Despite claiming that they prefer peaceful programmes, the leaders said that tough programmes such as general strikes would be announce if the situation so warrants.

The party's acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that there was no doubt that the BNP would wage a tough movement after Eid. 'You will be informed of the programmes in time.'

Standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said that they were discussing the mode of programmes they would announce after Ramadan. He said it might be decided after the party chief's return from Saudi Arabia after performing itiqaf at Ka'ba. 

'Till then we are focusing on issues of public sufferings such as an abnormal increase in commodity prices amid declining buying capacity of the people. And there are severe shortage of power and water. As a responsible opposition party, we cannot ignore them,' he said.

Standing committee member Mahbubur Rahman said that the party's prime issue was to concentrate on the issue of the 15th amendment to the constitution. 'We are out on a movement to restore the caretaker government provision. And are welcome all democratic forces in the movement,' he said.

Mahbub said that they were communicating with some other parties about the issue. Three small parties have already sided with the BNP. He said that the unity of like-minded parties was based on issues.

'Elections are still far away. So we are not planning any electoral alliance right now,' he said.

The party is also focused on mobilising its local units and gear up activists as the local units and associate bodies were prime forces for the waging of a movement.

In June, 19 teams headed by standing committee members, vice-chairmen and chairpersons' advisers were sent to grass roots and many of them submitted reports to the acting secretary general.

After their month-long tour, the party is now monitoring the activities and performance of units in programmes announced centrally.

Despite such moves, in-party feuds continued in many local units and associate bodies.

The party's chairperson, Khaleda Zia, has formed a committee to resolve disputes in Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, which is considered the BNP's prime force in waging movement, after a dissident group had ransacked its office centring on the feuds.

A senior leader, as an example, pointed to feuds in Barisal. 'The feuding factions even cannot tolerate each other. They are holding regular programmes separately and often get involved in violence,' he said, adding that similar situation was there in some more units.

Source : New Age

Villagers rally, block road

Several thousand people of Bhatiary at Sitakunda in Chittagong rallied and blocked the Dhaka–Chittagong Highway on Sunday morning in protest at land acquisition by the Bangladesh Military Academy.

The procession and blockade, which continued for more than two hours, suspended traffic, with hundreds of vehicles being stranded on both ends of the road stretch. The highway police cleared the road in their efforts for about three hours.

The villagers in seven processions about 9:30am marched towards Bhatiary Bazar and then paraded a 3km stretch of the highway in a single procession. They later gathered near the Bijoy Smarani College gate.

Leaders of the protesters, teamed up as Chapter Area Pratirodh Committee, at a meeting before the procession talked with the people of the area.

Former Bhatiary union council chairman Mohammad Ishak at the meeting said that the government had no rights to grab people's landed property by force. He urged the government and the military academy not to grab people's

land and drop the plan for the establishment of the chapter area.

The newly elected chairman of the union council Nurul Anwar said that the people of Bhatiary would fight on to protect their homestead homes by any means.

Abdus Salam, an inhabitant of the area, said that the military academy had been trying to acquire more than four square kilometres of land around the academy on security grounds although there had been no such incidents in the area that had ever jeopardised the security of the academy.

The academy authorities want to keep people out of the area and control the movement of people by fencing off the entire place under the chapter area, he said.

People of Bhatiary will fight against such aggression and efforts for land acquisition, he added.

Earlier on Sunday, several thousand people of the area formed a human chain and held protests on Bijoy Smarani College campus. The lawmaker for the Sitakunda constituency, Abul Kashem, addressed the programme as chief guest and expressed his solidarity with the movement of the people.

Kashem said that the illogical and unnecessary acquisition of land at Bhatiary would be resisted by any means. He said that the academy already owns a huge hill area and if it would need more land, it could acquire hill areas.

There is no justification of acquiring land by evicting at least 5,000 people, he added. He urged the people to get ready for a tough movement.

The government acquired 282 acres of land at Jungle Bhatiary Mauza in 1958 and 1975 to set up the military academy.

In 1984, 1986 and 1990, the government further acquired 20 acres of land by evicting several thousand people.

In 2008, the military-backed caretaker government declared more than two square kilometres of the land as chapter area.

The people later filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking a stay order on the declaration of the military academy. The court later issued a stay on the declaration.

Source : New Age

JS body blames ministry negligence for prices

The parliamentary standing committee on commerce ministry on Sunday accused the ministry of negligence in taking proper measures to arrest soaring prices before Ramadan.

The committee members at a meeting observed that the market monitoring system of the ministry was not adequate which resulted in scopes for dishonest traders to charge higher prices for commodities, sources attending the meeting said.

'Some dishonest businessmen are involved in making the market unstable because of lack of proper monitoring system by the ministry,' the committee chair, Abul Kashem, told reporters after the meeting. He added that the negligence of the ministry in ensuring proper oversight was also responsible for the price spiral.

He said that the committee had recommended that ministry should strengthen the market monitoring system and take action against the people responsible after identifying them.

The committee also suggested that the ministry should ensure an adequate stock of commodities by making easy the process of goods import, the sources said.

The committee members further suggested that the ministry should change the traditional market monitoring system and find out new ways for market monitoring to identify people who make the market unstable.

The sources said that the ministry had told the committee that they had identified 10 businessmen involved in increasing prices by making an artificial crisis and they were keeping close watch on them.

The ministry officials also told the meeting that committees had been formed to monitor markets at upazila and district levels to check price spiral, the sources said.

'We have identified a number of businessmen involved in increasing prices of essential commodities and we are keeping watch on them,' the commerce minister, Faruk Khan, told New Age after the meeting.

He added that the ministry would take legal measures against businessmen found making an artificial crisis to make the commodity market unstable.

He also said that the ministry teams were monitoring the market to ensure sales of sugar and cooking for the prices the government set earlier.

Committee member Rumana Mahmood, a BNP lawmaker, told New Age

that although the ministry was monitoring the market, the market was still unstable before Ramadan.

'We have recommended that the monitoring system should be strengthened to keep prices stable,' Rumana told New Age, adding that they also demanded that businessmen responsible for the price increase before Ramadan should be identified.

She said that the ministry should take measures to make easy the import process to ensure an adequate stock of commodities.

The BNP lawmaker also said that the parliamentary standing committee would inspect some city markets on the first day of Ramadan for the second time to check whether goods are selling for prices set earlier.

The parliamentary standing committee earlier in April also visited some city markets at Mohammadpur, New Market and Karwan Bazar.

Source : New Age