Chittagong Customs earns Tk 20,363cr in revenue

The Chittagong Customs House, the country's major revenue earning station, realised a record amount of revenue from import section totalling Tk 20,363 crore in the last fiscal (2010-2011) which is 21.18 per cent more than fiscal 2009-2010.

The amount realised in the just ended fiscal exceeded by Tk 1,098 crore against the target of Tk 19,265 crore. In fiscal 2009-2010, the CCH earned Tk 16,052 crore.

Official sources said the record revenue realisation was possible due to upgraded and transparent monitoring system in the delivery of imported goods, strong drives to realise outstanding tax and duties from the public and private organisations, and effective steps for disposing of pending tax disputes and cases.

Proper utilisation of poor manpower and technology in tax assessment process, and preventive measures to check tax evasion were also some of the steps that resulted in huge earnings in the last fiscal, CCH sources added.

Source : New Age

Energy crisis leaves Pakistan textiles in tatters

Spinning yarn into cloth used to be a path to fortune in Pakistan, but a story of decline encapsulates how far a crippling energy crisis and rocketing inflation are suffocating the economy.

Power cuts sometimes lasting more than 12 hours a day have forced factory owners in the country's cloth capital Faisalabad to switch off the lights and sell their looms for scrap, leaving tens of thousands of workers jobless.

The country is the world's fourth-largest producer of cloth and the industry accounts for 60 per cent of export revenue according to official data. But the shortages are heaping pressure on Pakistan's crippled and debt-ridden economy.

Malik Ammanullah Mani, 31, used to be a leading light on the party circuit. As manager of his family's textile factory, he belonged to a small, rich cabal that regularly graced private members' clubs and dined at five-star hotels.

But in the three years since Pakistan returned to elected rule, the energy crisis has steadily worsened amid poor investment and rampant theft from the grid, causing daily cuts and a sharp rise in the cost of power.

Inflation has also hit the price of thread — leaving Mani no option but to sell most of his family's weaving looms.

'Electricity and yarn prices have become unaffordable, for most of the time there is no power to run our looms, so we had to sell half of them to a scrap dealer,' Mani told the AFP as other workers sat idle in his closed factory.

The former rich kid now works a loom in his father's factory and says he gets by on pocket money of just 500 rupees ($6) a week.

'In good times, I was manager and distributing wages among my workers. Now I myself work on the looms we have left because I have nothing to pay workers,' said Mani, kitted out in a black t-shirt and jeans covered in chemical marks.

Faisalabad's textile district has now become a haven for metal dealers who buy looms from closing factories and sell them as scrap.

Those dealers' warehouses are filled with broken machinery while workers wait idle in weaving factories, plunged into darkness until the power resumes.

Industry leaders in Faisalabad, which is situated in Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab, say the shortage of electricity and gas has forced hundreds of units to shut down, with unknown numbers more in line to fall.

'Almost 800 units of a total of around 2,000 factories in Punjab province have closed down and many more are likely to be shut,' said Sheikh Abdul Qayyum, former head of the city's chamber of commerce and a factory owner.

'Around 5,00,000 workers lost their jobs in the province — about 1,00,000 in Faisalabad alone due to the closure of the factories,' he said.

The country faced a total shortfall of 7,739 megawatts of electricity in the peak summer month of June, before monsoon season, while the overall shortfall in the gas supply to industry is around 400 million cubic feet per day.

The authorities manage the shortages by cutting supply for hours at a time to industrial and domestic users.

Towns and cities across Pakistan are rocked by daily summer protests against the crisis and the government's perceived inaction, sometimes leading to violent clashes with riot police.

Despite a wealth of natural resources, Pakistan produces only 80 per cent of its electricity needs and even some of that comes from imported fuel.

'Lack of political will, bad governance and administrative inabilities pushed us into the crisis. If the situation stays the same, I have no hope things will improve,' said Fazlullah Qureshi, former top bureaucrat at the country's planning commission.

Punjab's industrialists blame politicians for exacerbating the crisis, accusing the government of giving preferential treatment to the textile industry in southern province of Sindh, the home of President Asif Ali Zardari.

A constitutional clause approved by parliament last year gives each province first right to use the natural resources they produce, putting Sindh ahead of Punjab in the queue for gas, which in turns fuels electricity generation.

'We want a uniform policy in the country as everybody should share the burden and opportunities,' said Shabbir Ahmed, a senior member of Faisalabad's chamber of commerce.

But the prospect of respite is so remote the Water and Power Development Authority acknowledged last week that power cuts would continue for at least another seven years.

Source : New Age

ADB team to visit Dhaka this month to examine solar funding scope

A consultation mission of Asian Development Bank will arrive in Dhaka this month to examine scope of the installation of 500MW capacity solar energy system in Bangladesh.

The ADB also plans to take an initiative to organise an investors' meeting in Dhaka by September to ensure donors' support in the project, a top official of the Power Division told the news agency on Sunday.

'The consultation mission will oversee the financial and technical viability of the Bangladesh's plans to install 500MW capacity solar energy system and arrange an investors' meeting here,' additional secretary of the power division Taposh Kumar Roy said.

A Bangladeshi high level official team led by adviser to the prime minister Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury attended a international conference on solar energy sponsored by the Asian Development Bank in Bangkok on May 29 and placed its plea on the issue.

Following the ADB's strategy to promote renewable energy in Asia, the power division has chalked out its plan to set up a solar energy system and projected its plan to negotiate for the fund with the donor agencies to implement the mega solar power project.

'We need three billion US dollars to implement the plan,' Taposh Kumur Roy said.

According to the power division, government sought 60 per cent of the fund as grant money from the donors.

The ADB is discussing with European countries about an investment fund of $500 million for solar projects in developing countries like Bangladesh, official sources said.

The additional secretary said the authorities had identified nine ministries which would implement the solar energy plan in coordination with the power division, official sources said.

The ministries are — power ministry, communications ministry, local government ministry, housing and public works ministry, health and family welfare ministry, religious affairs ministry, education ministry, industries ministry and agriculture ministry.

Source : New Age

BB taking measures to tackle risks to economy: Atiur

Bangladesh Bank is taking different measures to tackle persisting and emerging risks to the country's economy and to ensure inclusive growth, BB governor Atiur Rahman told a programme on Sunday.

The governor was speaking about the role of the central bank at the concluding session of a six-month foundation training programme of the newly-appointed officers of the BB, held at the Bangladesh Bank Training Academy at Mirpur in Dhaka.

Referring to the persisting pressure on the economy mainly from rising inflation, sliding remittance, balance of payment and unstable exchange rate, he said the central bank was working on establishing an effective financial system to deal with the challenges.

He said the BB had already taken some effective measures in its monetary policy to manage inflation when it increased credit flow to agriculture, small and medium enterprises and some other development sectors to expedite growth prospect.

Besides, Atiur said the central bank had also playing a role beyond its traditional trajectory to encourage banks and financial institutions develop eco-friendly and ICT-based industry for achieving sustainable growth.

Source : New Age

Indo-Bangla border markets open July 16

Two border markets between Bangladesh and India will start operations on July 16, said commerce minister Faruk Khan on Sunday.

'We are expected to inaugurate a border market between Lauwaghar in Sunamganj and Balat in Meghalaya on July 16 as the Indian commerce minister [Anand Sharma] assured that he would also participate in the inauguration ceremony,' Faruk told New Age on Sunday.

He said another border market between Baliamari in Kurigram and Kalaichar in Meghalaya would also start operations the same day.

People from the two countries will be able to trade at the markets with their national currencies, Faruk said. The markets will also have currency conversion facilities.

The agreement between India and Bangladesh on border markets has become operational, reported the Press Trust of India on Sunday. The two nations signed the agreement in October 2010.

Locally produced vegetables, food items, fruits, spices, minor local forest produces like bamboos, bamboo grass, and broom sticks can be traded at these markets, said the PTI report.

People from the two sides will be allowed to move across the border to the markets on specific days and time as decided by the authorities.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade in the Indian Commerce Ministry, which notified the arrangement, said sale of locally produced agriculture and household implements – hatchet, plough, axe, spade and chisel will also be allowed to be traded at these bazaars.

Vendors selling products at the markets will have to be residents of the area within five kilometre radius, the PTI report added.

Commerce ministry sources said more border markets would be set up on a pilot basis, if the two markets brought benefits for the two next-door neighbours.

The two nations first launched border trading in April 1972, just months after Bangladesh had come into existence, but the trading stopped one year later due to rampant smuggling in the border areas.

Source : New Age

DSE turnover tops Tk 1,100cr after two and a half months

Turnover of the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Sunday crossed the Tk 1,100-crore mark again after two and a half months while the bourse's general index continued to rise for the fifth consequent day as both individual and institutional investors went on a buying binge on the hope that the market would rally further.

Market operators said the turnover of the bourse rose to Tk 1,139.45 crore on Sunday from Tk 954.84 on the previous trading day as investors' confidence in the market was on the rise following the government decision to allow undisclosed money to be invested in the equities market.

DGEN, the benchmark general index of the DSE, added 40.28 points, or 0.65 per cent, to close the day at 6,157.51 points.

The bourse's turnover hit an all-time high of Tk 3,249.57 crore on December 5, when the market witnessed a boom, but plunged to Tk 206.41 crore on January 25 following a series of huge stock crashes that discouraged the investors from trading.

A liquidity crisis also hit the market that time as most of the banks as well as other large investors withdrew their overinvestment in December pocketing huge profits.

After the dull period of January-March, the market began to get back on track in April, when the turnover crossed the Tk 1,000 crore mark for the first time after the market debacle. The turnover of the DSE amounted to Tk 1,224.16 crore on April 11.

But, the market started to slip again as investors became panicked once more following uncertainty over implementation of the recommendations of the probe committee on January's stocks scam.

As institutional and large investors remained almost inactive, a fresh liquidity crisis seized

the market, with the turnover of the bourse plunging to Tk 296.49 crore on May 26.

Investors, who lost most of their investment in the latest stock market debacle, took to the streets time and again to protest the relentless fall in share prices. They also demanded government action to address the situation.

Several government attempts including the launching of the Tk 5,000 crore open-ended Bangladesh Fund during the period to stabilise the market and ease the liquidity crisis failed.

The market had become upbeat again before the proposed budget for the current fiscal year was tabled in the parliament on the speculation that the government might allow legalisation of undisclosed money for investment in the capital market for easing the liquidity crisis.

But, when the proposed budget was announced on June 9 without any such provision, the market again turned red, shedding 213 points in a week.

The market, however, had been in an uptrend before the passage of the finance bill with the investors anticipating that the government would finally allow investment of undisclosed money in the capital market. The average daily turnover rose to Tk 800.55 crore and the DGEN added 269.97 points in the past week, when the parliament passed the budget with a provision for allowing investment of undisclosed money in the share market by paying a 10 per cent tax.

Market operators said the extension of the deadline for the banks to bring their exposure in the capital market within the limit and reassess their credit-deposit ratio on source fundoffered by the Bangladesh Bank also brought the institutional investors to the trading floor.  

Turnover increased significantly on Sunday, the first trading day of the current fiscal year.

Of the 256 issues traded on the day, 204 advanced, 49 declined, and three remained unchanged.

Most of the bank issues lost values as investors went for profit selling of the shares.

Insurance and financial institutions sectors were upbeat on the day, while most of the issues in textile and pharmaceuticals sectors also ended in the positive territory.

Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, a professor of finance at Dhaka University, said, 'Turnover made a significant rise recently mainly due to over-enthusiasm of the investors about allowing investment of undisclosed money in stocks.'

'The BB's move on commercial banks pulled them out of the negative zone but it is difficult to say whether they will able to contribute to the capital market in the current fiscal,' he said.

'If the banks do not contribute as before, which they probably will not be able to do, according to the budgetary measures, the positive streak in the market will not sustain for long,' he argued.

Source : New Age

Sylhet Agri University students continue demo for flexible rules

Sylhet Agricultural University students on Sunday formed a human chain in the Sylhet city as a part of their continued movement, demanding more flexible rules to pass a semester.

Some 300 first and second semester students of the university, boycotting their classes and examinations, participated in the human chain held in front of the Central Shaheed Minar at about 3:00pm.

The speakers at the programme called on their vice-chancellor to take steps to meet their demands.

SAU student-affairs adviser Jamal Uddin Bhuiyan told New Age that a meeting was scheduled to be held between the authorities and the student representatives in the evening to discuss the situation.

The students said that the four-year Bachelor of Science (honours) programme of the university was divided into eight academic semesters and each semester had 16 credit-course on average assigned to it.

According to the credit-course system, which the university introduced from its 2009-10 session, one does not pass a semester if one fails in more than 20 per cent credit-course, a provision the agitating students called too rigorous for them.

They had demanded that the authorities double the limit, enabling the students to pass the semester even if they fail up to 40 per cent credit-course assigned to it.

The students launched the movement on June 22.

Source : New Age

Birth registration stressed for future planning

The local government, rural development and cooperatives minister Syed Ashraful Islam on Sunday emphasised birth registration for successful future planning of the country.

He was addressing a discussion marking 5th Birth Registration Day 2011 at the public library auditorium in Dhaka.

The minister said that at present about 95 per cent people of the country had received birth registrations as the government had started the birth and death registration projects since 2001 with the financial help of UNICEF.

Without adequate birth information of the citizens, a nation could not go further for future planning, like education and healthcare, he observed.

Syed Ashraful Islam told the discussion that the government would gradually digitalised every service sector of the country, including voting, with a view to making difficult tusks easy.

He illustrated the examples of the difficult tasks as property inheritance and prevention of child marriages.

'Now the government had started online birth registration and information on more than 1.8 crore people was saved in a database,' he said, adding that the online registration was going on in 29 districts and would be started at the rest of the districts soon.

He said the government also took initiatives for the expatriate Bangladeshis so that they could obtain birth registration.

He also said the Bio-metric registration would be started afterward.

Syed Mahbub Hasan, additional secretary of local government division, expressed his dissatisfaction over differences in certificate and real birth dates of most of the people.

UNICEF Bangladesh country director Carel de Rooy said marginal children were yet to get the birth certificates without any fee.

Source : New Age

Safia, Afia recover from mental illness

The mentally imbalanced young girls who, along with their father, were rescued from a Sylhet city residence on Saturday, were shifted to a cabin from the surgery ward at Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital on Sunday to ward off the flocking visitors.

The hospital sources said the two girls and their father were under the supervision of medicine specialist Ismail Patwari of the hospital.

Their condition — both physical and mental — has started to improve after they were admitted to the hospital on Saturday, the sources said.

The kotwali police rescued the two sister — Safia Begum, 33, and Afia Begum, 28, who were students of a local private college, and their father Abdul Noor, an United Kingdom expatiate, from their residence at Housing Estate in the city in a mentally imbalanced condition.

Relatives said Abdul Noor had been living along with his daughters in the residence, having no power and gas supply, for more than 18 months since the death of his wife Rokeya Begum.

The daughters were never allowed to go out and Abdul Noor himself hardly went out during the period, the sources said.

Masud Ahmad, an on-duty doctor at SOMCH, told New Age that positive changes were taking place in the behavior of two girls after they were admitted to the hospital.

He said their father also seemed to recover from the mental disorder gradually.

'They are schizophrenic genetically,' he added.

SOMCH assistant director Ehteshamul Haque Chowdhury told New Age that they hoped the girls would be able to come back to normal life within the next 15 days.

Source : New Age

Change in temperature unlikely

Light to moderate rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at most places over the Rajshahi, Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet divisions and at many places over the Khulna and Barisal divisions till 6:00pm today.

Moderately heavy to heavy falls are also likely at places, the Meteorology Office said in a forecast on Sunday.

Day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country.

The sun sets in Dhaka today at 6:50pm and rises tomorrow at 5:16am.

The country's highest temperature, 31.0 degrees Celsius, was recorded on Sunday in Rajshahi and the lowest, 23.2 degrees Celsius, in Sandwip.

Source : New Age

Fake doctor held at Dhaka Medical College Hospital

The Shahbagh police in Dhaka on Sunday arrested a young man impersonating a doctor at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

The police said Moshiur Rahman Samrat, 24, from Patuakhali was primarily caught by on duty Ansar members when he was trying to treat some patients at ward number 212 in the hospital.

Later, the Ansar handed him over to the police.

The witnesses said that on-duty intern Mamun challenged Moshiur's identity as a doctor.

Moshiur showed his apron, stethoscope and a students' identity card of K66 batch of the medical college, but claimed that he was a student of K61 batch.

As confusion mounted, Mamum, brought the incident to the authorities' notice and called Ansar members.

Later, the authorities identified Moshiur fake.

The police said Moshiur, who used to live in Mitford area in the capital, admitted that he had been doing such works for last four weeks and also collected fees from the patients.

Source : New Age

Accommodation crisis leads to subhuman life at Barisal jail

The Barisal Central Jail is crammed with prisoners more than double its capacity, pushing the inmates to lead a subhuman life.

Crises of solitary cells for the death row inmates, separate ward for children and juveniles and shortage of jail guards have become acute recently.

Colonial rulers set up the jail in 1829 on 21 acres of land in the district town and it was upgraded as central jail on July 1, 1997.

The jail is designed to accommodate 633 prisoners, while currently it houses 1,240, with the number most often reaching 1,600.

Of the current prisoners, 657 are convicted (Koyedi) and 583 under trial prisoners (Hajati).

Of them, 45 were death-sentenced prisoners, including a woman, 49 had been serving life term, 34 were female, 40 were children and juvenile, 8 were militant suspects.

At present, the jail has a one-storey, a three-storey, and 2 two-storey buildings, a tin-shed building and a 34-bed two-storey jail hospital building.

According to the normal procedure, death row inmates have to be confined in solitary cells for psychological and security causes. But 45 death-sentenced prisoners, including the female one, and 8 extremists and militants are detained in 12 condemned cells, ignoring safety and security standards of the prisons.

The children and juvenile prisoners are kept in a vulnerable situation with the convicted criminals in the jail.

The Barisal Central Jail has six-bed two prison cells at Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital.

The contingent of about 200 jail guards, deployed for maintaining discipline and security in the prison, was not extended to cover the increased number of prisoners.

About fifteen per cent of them are engaged as domestic helps at different residential quarters of the jail officials, sources said.

Md Sagir Mia, senior jail superintendent in-charge of the Barisal Central Jail, said as per jail code at least 36 square feet space is required for each non-criminal prisoner, 24 square feet space for each convicted and under trial prisoner, 54 square feet separate condemned or solitary cell should be allotted for every death-sentenced prisoner.

Condition of the jail hospital is beggar description as over 80 prisoners stay here without any permanent doctor.

Well-off prisoners occupy the beds with the help of the corrupt jail officials, while the poor prisoners often lie on the floor to treat different types of skin, stomach and other infectious diseases.

Due to the space shortage, in one of the 2 two-storey buildings, 120 prisoners are kept in each floor with the capacity for detaining 40 prisoners per floor and 60 prisoners are detained per floor in another two-storey building with the capacity of keeping  only 30 prisoners.

A jail source, on condition of anonymity, said the number of the arrested is increasing every day but number of the released is fewer than the arrested.

On the other hand, prisoners who are convicted for over 14 years, militants and seriously sick prisoners have been sent to the central jail from other five district jails including Barguna, Bhola, Pirojpur, Patuakhali and Jhalakathi district of the division.

Beside the accommodation problem, the prisoners are beset with nutrition, health, sanitation, sports facility and amusement crises, and are facing corruption, inhuman behaviour and torture, absence of legal aid and other basic humanitarian problems and deficiencies.

About the security and space crisis, the jail officer said, the authorities have taken steps to increase the number of security guards and build more buildings.

However, the upgraded status of the central jail is not yet maintained with full facilities and appointment of higher officials like deputy inspector general of police (prison).

DIG prison of Khulna is in-charge of the Barisal Central Jail and it created complexity in maintaining administration in Barisal, he acknowledged.

'We heard that project for constructing two multi-storey buildings in Barisal Central Jail compound has been approved by the authorities concerned last month,' the jail superintendent said.

Source : New Age

Aspirant job seekers in Korea begins fast unto death in capital

Aspirant job seekers in Korea began their fast unto death binding white cloths around their heads in front of the National Press Club in the capital on Sunday demanding to be sent to Korea immediately.

Around 60 job seekers began the hunger strike on behalf of some 404 people who failed to go to Korea allegedly for negligence of Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Limited.

The striking job seekers said they had passed the Korean language test in 2008 and 2009 as required under the Korean Employment Permit System and completed all necessary formalities including medical check up and submitted all the needed documents to the BOESL.

They alleged that as BOESL did not send their information to Korea correctly, the Korean authorities deleted their names from the list of the persons they wanted to take.

Talking to newsmen, one of the striking job seekers, Md Delwar Hossain, said earlier in June they had arranged a press conference at the National Press Club, sent letters to different ministries and departments and lastly observed hunger strike in front of BOESL to press home their demands.

'As all our earlier efforts went in vain, we began the fast unto death and would continue it until our demands are met,' he said.

Source : New Age