Top brokers to sit with DSE, BSEC today

Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) will sit today (Tuesday) with top 30 brokers to discuss the ongoing situation of the capital market, officials said. The meeting has been scheduled following the arranged sluggish trend of the country’s capital market. The benchmark index of the DSE-DSEX, lost 173 points in last eight trading sessions amid thin turnover value. On Monday, the DSEX lost 53 points, the biggest single-day fall in 2016. “The DSE board will discuss the ongoing market situation with the top 30 brokers,” said DSE managing director Dr. Swapan Kumar Bala. On Tuesday, the securities regulator will sit with chief executives of brokerage firms to collect ‘innovative’ ideas for solving the problems existing in different areas.

Source: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/29/137638

Asian Tiger to manage first open-end MF

A trust deed on ‘ATC Shariah Unit Fund’ was signed between Asian Tiger Capital Partners Investments Limited and Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) on Monday with initial fund size of BDT 100 million. Managing Director of ATC Partners Investments (CC) and head of issue management and underwriting Mohammad Samsul Haque and General Manager of ICB Nasir Uddin Ahmed signed the deed on behalf of their respective organizations on the ICB premises in the city. The fund is sponsored by Asian Tiger Capital Partners Investments, a full-fledged merchant bank which will be managed by Asian Tiger Capital Partners Asset Management in a Shariah compliant manner, while ICB is the trustee and custodian of the fund. This is the second mutual fund and first open-end mutual fund to be managed by Asian Tiger Capital Partners Asset Management with initial fund size of BDT 100 million, said Mr Minhaz Zia, Chairman of Asian Tiger Capital Partners Investments.

Source: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/29/137637

National Board of Revenue fears negative impact on business, price situation

Businesses and consumers both may have to bear higher costs under impacts of a new VAT and SD law for reduced protection to domestic industries, the revenue authority forewarns. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) made such forecast in a situation paper to be submitted to the government about effects of the Value Added Tax (VAT) and Supplementary Duty (SD) Act 2012 that is scheduled to come into force from July 1, 2016. In the paper the NBR has pinpointed 10 major challenges stemming from implementation of the new law, along with their ramifications related to cost of doing business, consumer prices and government revenue earning. The challenges include abolition of a wide area of tax exemption, withdrawal of package system of VAT, truncated-base system, tariff value and imposition of uniform rate of VAT at 15%. Under the new law, local industries will face a stiff competition as level of protection will be reduced. Average level of protection will be cut to 23.3% from 50.7%, the NBR summary says. The number of products having SD at the import stage is to be reduced to around 120 from the existing 1,600 which will severely reduce the level of protection for the domestic industries.

Source:
http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/29/137681
http://newagebd.net/215705/nbr-identifies-10-key-hurdles-to-vat-law-implementation/

Furnace oil price cut comes in a week

The government has decided to reduce the price of furnace oil but the figure will be announced in a week. This was disclosed Monday by State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid while speaking to bdnews24.com. Asked whether the prices of other fuel oils will also be cut, he said, “We’ve made a decision only about furnace oil.” Bangladesh had raised fuel oil prices in 2013 because a global hike in oil prices. As per the prices fixed then, octane is being sold at BDT 99 per liter, petrol at BDT 96, and kerosene and diesel at BDT 68 a litre. The price of a litre of furnace oil is BDT 60. Though global oil price has been falling for around one and a half years, the government kept oil price unchanged to enable state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to offset the losses it had sustained.

Source: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/29/137685

Deal on Payra power plant today

The government plans to sign an engineering, procurement and construction contract today for the installation of the Payra coal-fired power plant in Patuakhali. The plant would generate 1,320 MW of electricity from 2019, Mohammad Hossain, director general of Power Cell, told the news agency yesterday. He said Bangladesh-China Power Company Ltd, a joint venture firm of Chinese Power Company (CMC), and state-owned North-West Power Generation Company Ltd (NWPGCL) would sign the contract. Hossain said the government plans to set up series of coal-fired power plants countrywide to increase the power generation capacity to 34,000 MW by 2030 under the Power System Master Plan (2010-2030). Currently, 76% of the population enjoy electricity, as the power generation capacity has reached 14,500 MW, he said.

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/business/deal-payra-power-plant-today-1201081

SMS likely to get costlier

Sending text messages to another network is likely to become costlier after the telecom regulator’s decision to include a third party to the routing process. At present, the mobile operators run the short message service (SMS) through bilateral deals with each other. But in a recent meeting of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, it was decided that the text messages will have to be routed through the interconnection exchange (ICX) operators, a move that is set to increase the costs by 2%. Ultimately, users will bear the costs and it will not be good for the industry, said mobile phone operators, adding that they have not received the official directive yet. Currently, the maximum charge on SMS from one operator to another is BDT 0.5, in addition to 15% VAT, 3% supplementary duty and 1% surcharge. Another BDT 0.01 will be now be added for the extra layer imposed by the BTRC. Introducing the ICX layer in the SMS transmission will help the law enforcement agencies increase their surveillance, said a BTRC official.

Source:
http://www.thedailystar.net/business/sms-likely-get-costlier-1201114
http://newagebd.net/215696/btrc-allows-additional-player-in-sms-transmission/

Government lifts ban on raw jute export

Exports of raw jute will reopen next week as the government yesterday lifted the ban on shipments four months after imposing it. The Ministry of Textiles and Jute issued a notice announcing the withdrawal of the ban to be effective from April 3. The lifting of the ban came amid pleas from raw jute exporters, as many of them had to delay shipments owing to the bar since December last year. The government banned exports of all types of raw jute to meet the country’s additional demand for jute in implementing the mandatory jute packaging law. Previously, a similar ban was imposed for a month. Abdul Quayyum, secretary of Bangladesh Jute Association, said restrictions on exports hurt exporters badly, and many traders could have avoided losses if the government had withdrawn it earlier. Only a small number of businessmen would benefit from the move now, he said. “It may be helpful for those who have stock and have orders pending,” he said.

Source:
http://www.thedailystar.net/business/govt-lifts-ban-raw-jute-export-1201108
http://newagebd.net/215702/govt-lifts-jute-export-ban-from-apr-3/

Knit makers diversify products as demand grows

Local knitwear makers are now diversifying their product basket mainly to enhance their competitiveness for the sake of greater sustainability on the global market, industry-insiders said. Sportswear, work wear, nightwear, socks and lingerie are among the products that have emerged strongly in recent years, they said. Going beyond the traditional notion of being low-cost and mass production, some of the companies are increasingly moving towards more value-added products, the insiders said. Firms such as Knit Concern Group, SQ Group, Welltex Group and Savar Group, are some of the companies that have already established their footprints in these segments. “Some have already invested in products variation and undergarment and nightwear are one of the items getting momentum,” Fazlul Hoque, former president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), told the FE.

Source: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/29/137647

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