Bangladesh: USTR claims not based on facts: Tofail
Dhaka, July 4 (New Age): The commerce minister, Tofail Ahmed, on Thursday said the statement of the US Trade Representative that the government of Bangladesh had not implemented substantial parts of the GSP action plan was unjustified and not based on facts. ‘The actual situation of the readymade garment sector in Bangladesh was not reflected in the statement of the USTR as the labour condition in Bangladesh has made a significant improvement and we have implemented almost all conditions of GSP action plan,’ the commerce minister told New Age. Tofail alleged that in association with some non-governmental organisations, a few trade union leaders were providing international community with false information about the labour condition in Bangladesh. The USTR on Wednesday expressed its concern over non-implementation of significant parts of the action plan provided by the administration of president Barak Obama last year as conditions for restoring the facilities under the Generalised System of Preferences. An interagency review led by the Office of the USTR concluded that Bangladesh needed to develop a credible and effective mechanism for responding to and addressing allegations of unfair labour practices. ‘Since the suspension of GSP, the government has also not advanced the labour law reforms called for in the action plan, including changes to ensure that workers are afforded the same rights and protections in Export Processing Zones as in the rest of the country,’ the USTR said. Tofail, however, said that the government had made the highest efforts to fulfil the conditions set in the GSP action plan and there was no reason why the facilities should not be restored if the congress resumed the programme. ‘… we remain concerned about the large number of factories that have yet to be inspected, the lack of progress on needed labour law reforms, and continuing reports of harassment of and violence against labour activists who are attempting to exercise their rights,’ The US Trade Representative, Michael Froman said. ‘If the situation [raising allegations] continues, the implementation of TICFA deal might face challenge,’ he said. Replying to a question, the commerce minister said that Bangladesh had no plan to write to the US administration about the allegations raised by the congressmen and USTR. The USTR review stated slow response of the government to continuing reports of harassment and violence against labour activists. The review found that the government was still behind the schedule in carrying out safety inspections in garment factories and recruiting additional factory inspectors. The review was conducted by the USTR-chaired GSP subcommittee of the interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee, which includes representatives of the departments of state, labour, commerce, agriculture and the treasury, as well as USAID. The GSP subcommittee hopes to carry out its next review of Bangladesh’s progress on the GSP action plan in December 2014. ‘The Obama administration has been engaging the Bangladesh government and stakeholders over the past year to press for changes to address the worker rights and worker safety issues that led to the president’s decision to suspend GSP trade benefits,’ USTR said. Ahead of the one year anniversary of the EU Sustainability Compact, the US government notes Bangladesh’s progress towards fulfilment of some of the commitments in the agreement and welcomes continued positive collaboration between all signatories in support of Bangladesh’s adoption of international standards in worker rights and safety,’ the USTR said. Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, however, differed with the findings of the review that the government of Bangladesh had not yet implemented substantial parts of the action plan. A number of substantial issues of the action plan have been implemented, including amendment to the labour law and registration of trade unions, the BGMEA vice-president Shahidullah Azim said. He claimed that out of the 16 conditions set in the action plan, 14 had so far been implemented and the rest two were progressing and it would take some time to implement those. The US government on June 27, 2013 suspended the GSP for Bangladesh due to an insufficient improvement in worker rights conditions. The US on July 19, 2013 gave Bangladesh the 16-point action plan as conditions for restoring GSP facilities.
Bangladesh: Remittance inflow drops after 14 yrs
Dhaka, July 4 (New Age): The country’s remittance inflow registered a negative growth in financial year 2013-14 for the first time in last 14 years against the backdrop of downward manpower exports during the period, said economists and Bangladesh Bank officials. According to BB data released on Thursday, remittance inflow decreased by 1.61 per cent in the FY14 compared with that of a rise of 12.59 per cent in FY13. The expatriate Bangladeshis sent US$ 14.22 billion in the FY14 against US$ 14.46 billion in the FY13. The inflow of remittance was US$ 12.84 billion in the FY12. The BB data showed that the inflow of remittance had maintained an increased trend between the FY01 and the FY13. The BB data, however, revealed that the remittance inflow increased by 21.55 per cent to US$ 1.28 billion in June, 2014 from US$ 1.05 billion during the same month in FY2013. The expatriates Bangladeshis sent a significant amount of the greenback in last month ahead of Eid-ul-Fitre, the BB officials said. Former caretaker government adviser Mirza Azizul Islam told New Age on Thursday that the shrinking manpower export, lack of comprehensive policies and less export of skilled workers caused the reduction of remittances inflow into Bangladesh. According to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training data, a total of 96,068 workers went abroad with jobs from January to March of the current year while some 1,07,626 had gone abroad with jobs during the same period in 2013, showing a decline of 11,567 overseas employment in three months. The BMET also recorded that about four lakh workers including male and female got overseas jobs from January to December in 2013 against over six lakh workers in 2012. Mirza Aziz said that the remittance inflow would not increase in the coming days if the country fails to push up its manpower export. He suggested the government to discover the new countries to increase manpower export. The government should take initiatives to send more skilled workers by giving proper training so that they (workers) will be able to repatriate more foreign exchange, he said. The BB data showed that the private commercial banks received US$ 821.72 million in inward remittances in June while the state-run commercial banks received US$ 431.03 million, foreign commercial banks US$ 17.14 million, and specialised banks got US$ 16.50 million. In June, Islami Bank Bangladesh received the highest amount of remittances — US$ 313.61 million — among the private commercial banks, while Agrani Bank got the highest amount of remittances — US$ 149.53 million — among the state-run banks.
Bangladesh: NBR taking tax in advance to make up for shortfall
Dhaka, July 4 (New Age): The National Board of Revenue is desperately trying to achieve the revenue earnings target (Tk 1,25,000 crore) through collecting tax in advance from the corporate taxpayers and realising dues from the state-owned entities, officials said. NBR high-ups instructed field level officials of the revenue board to ensure maximum efforts to minimise the reported shortfall in revenue collection (Tk 3,000 crore) and meet the target set for each field office, they said. Referring to the provisional calculation of the NBR, they said that revenue collection in the just concluded fiscal year of 2013-2014 fell short of Tk 3,000 crore from achieving Tk 1,25,000 crore revised target set for the year. The revenue board has repeatedly instructed the field officials to realise the dues from the state-owned organisations and collect tax in advance from the large taxpayers to make up the gap. At a meeting with its commissioners, NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain also put pressure on field level taxmen to realise the dues. Officials said that the revenue board every year usually follows the techniques of collection of advance tax from the corporate taxpayers to achieve the target. Corporate taxpayers submit their income tax returns by July 15 but taxmen usually collect tax in advance from them by June, giving revenue collection a boost, they said. The NBR may finalise the revenue collection data soon. Finally, the NBR will be able to make the revenue collection shortfall smaller and even it may achieve the target after adjustment of value-added tax and taxes to be collected in advance and dues, officials said. The revenue board in the 2012–2013 financial year failed to achieve the target by Tk 3,645 crore for the first time in the past five years. They said that the revenue board had collected some Tk 1,22,000 crore in July-June against the target of Tk 1,25,000 crore due to failure of the income tax and value-added tax wings of the NBR to meet their targets. ‘Income tax fell short of the target mainly because of lower profit earnings of banks and other corporate entities, major contributors in income tax collection, and reduction of tax at source on export,’ a high official of the NBR said. He said that large taxpayer unit of the NBR, responsible for the collection of corporate tax, experienced a big shortfall above Tk 1,000 crore while the revenue board got at least Tk 500 crore less in June alone due to reduction of source tax on export, particularly readymade garment items. Collection in VAT also lagged behind the target because of slow business activities in the country in the last fiscal year amid political unrest before the national elections held in January 5 and political uncertainties in later half of the fiscal year, he said. According to the NBR data, it collected Tk 1,03,723.79 crore in the 11 months of the last fiscal year keeping Tk 21,372 crore for June, the last month of the year. In July-May, the revenue board collected Tk 38,996 crore in VAT, Tk 34,041 crore in income tax and Tk 30,015 crore in customs duties. The full-year targets for the three wings of the NBR are Tk 46,850 crore for VAT, Tk 44,360 crore for income tax and Tk 32,870 crore for customs wings. The government earlier revised down the revenue collection target from original allocation of Tk 1,36,090 crore following demand from the NBR saying that it would not be able to achieve the target because of political turmoil in the first half of the fiscal year and slower economic activities all the year round.
Bangladesh: Cash incentives on textile exports to new markets increase to 3pc
Dhaka, July 4 (New Age): The government has increased the cash incentive to 3 per cent from 2 per cent for export of new textile products and expanding export of textile items to new markets other than US, Canada and European Union for financial year 2014-15. A Bangladesh Bank circular issued on Thursday said the cash incentive for textile exporters had been enhanced in line with a government decision to give additional incentive to the exporters from January 2014 to June 2015. The government earlier announced that it would provide additional 1 per cent cash incentive in textile export. The cash subsidy for other 13 sectors has not been changed for the FY 2014-15, the BB circular said. The BB circular was issued to authorised dealer branches of all the scheduled banks saying that 14 sectors would receive the cash subsidy against their exported products in the FY 2014-15 according to finance ministry decision on cash subsidy/incentives. According to the circular, exporters would receive cash subsidy for the products against net repatriation of the FOB (freight on board) prices from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015. The export-oriented local textile sector will continue to get 5 per cent cash incentive as an alternative to duty bonds and duty drawbacks. The exporters of shrimp would continue to 10 per cent cash incentive against their export while for the exporters of jute yarn will get 7.50 per cent. Exporters of handmade products from hogla, hay and sugarcane fibre will continue to receive 15 to 20 per cent, agro products (vegetables and fruits) and agro-processing products 20 per cent and bone dust will get 15 per cent cash incentives. Light engineering products will get 10 per cent cash incentive. Exporters of halal meat and potato will continue to receive 20 per cent incentive while ship exporters will get 5 per cent cash incentives. Exporters from small and medium industries in textiles sector will get an additional incentive of 5 per cent along with the regular incentive. Pet bottle-flex exporters will get 10 per cent incentive.
Bangladesh: Govt gets Tk 26.55cr more in taxes from DSE in FY14
Dhaka, July 4 (New Age): Government’s tax collection from the Dhaka Stock Exchange increased by 20.85 per cent or Tk 26.55 crore in the just concluded fiscal year 2013-2014 compared with that in the previous fiscal year. The DSE in the last fiscal year paid Tk 153.84 crore in taxes including taxes on turnover and on sponsor-directors’ share sales against Tk 127.29 crore it had paid in the previous fiscal year, a DSE data showed. The government during the period got Tk 112.53 crore in taxes on turnover, while it was Tk 85.70 crore in the previous fiscal year. The bourse in the FY 2013-2014 collected Tk 41.31 crore in taxes on sponsor-directors’ shares transactions, while it was Tk 41.58 crore in the fiscal year 2012-2013. The turnover of the DSE hit a two-year high of Tk 1,294.61 crore on July 9 in 2013, which was the highest after Tk 1,341.26 crore recorded on July 31 in 2011. DSE under the section 53 BBB of Income Tax Ordinance 1984 collects 0.05 per cent taxes on turnover, while sponsor-directors and placement holders are bound to pay 5 per cent taxes on their capital gain on shares sales as per the section 53M of the Income Tax Ordinance 1984. The government’s tax collection from the bourse depends on its turnover and sponsor-directors’ capital gain, said DSE officials. They said as the turnover increased in the FY14, tax collection from the DSE rose. The National Board of Revenue in the fiscal year 2011-2012 got Tk 168.91 crore in taxes on turnover against Tk 102.76 crore in taxes on sponsor-directors’ shares sales. The bourse after its inception gave highest taxes on turnover of Tk 325.91 crore in 2010-2011 when the market had witnessed the bubble-burst. Tax collection by the government had hit a record single-month high in November 2010 when it received Tk 47.71 crore, thanks to the market boom.
Stocks drop for 3rd day as large investors wait for cheap shares
Dhaka, July 4 (New Age): Dhaka stocks declined for the third trading session on Thursday despite a positive beginning as most of the institutional investors remained on the sideline after year closing. The key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, declined to 4,436.20 points, shedding 0.68 per cent or 30.40 points. Operators said that the institutional investors’ low presence at the trading floor kept the market negative for another trading session despite media reports of increased operating profit of most of the banks in the first half of the calendar year. On the other hand, data of increased foreign investment during the month of June failed to boost investors’ participation on the trading floor, they said. They also said that institutional investors might be waiting to buy shares at cheaper prices after half yearly closing share sell-offs. Besides, retail investors were mostly focused on some specific shares due to recent increase in share prices based on rumour, they said. The government’s move to scrape the proposed 3-5 per cent gain tax imposition in the budget also failed to keep the market afloat, they said. DS30, the blue-chip index of the bourse, fell by 0.94 per cent, or 15.45 points, to close at 1,621.86 points. The turnover of the bourse increased to Tk 261.85 crore compared with Tk 247.85 crore in the previous trading session. Of the 298 shares and mutual funds that changed hands, 117 advanced, 136 declined and 45 remained unchanged. ‘In a snapshot, DSEX declined by 30 points and went below 4,450 points mark after three sessions,’ said IDLC. Appollo Ispat Complex led the turnover chart as its shares worth Tk 35.14 crore changed hands, with its share prices increasing the most by 9.02 per cent. BEXIMCO, Lafarge Surma Cement, The Peninsula Chittagong, Grameenphone, United Airways, Square Pharmaceuticals, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, MJL Bangladesh and Al-Haj Textiles were among other turnover leaders. Progressive Life Insurance lost the most on the day shedding 4.49 per cent.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)