Current News

Bangladesh’s external debts soared by $31 billion in the past three years, reaching nearly $94 billion at the end of December 2022, indicating a growing reliance of the country on foreign loans for its development initiatives. According to Bangladesh Bank data, the country’s foreign debts were $62.99 billion at the …

The government has no plan at present to increase interest rates on family savings certificates, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told parliament today. The interest rate on family savings bonds may be re-fixed considering the investment situation, he said. In response to a lawmaker’s queries, Kamal said foreign financing decreased …

Tax collection growth slowed drastically in the first half of the current fiscal year due to falling customs tariff and direct taxes amid declining imports and reduced profits of firms, limiting the government’s scope to spend on development activities. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) clocked 11 per cent year-on-year …

The price of mild steel (MS) rod may soon cross Tk 1 lakh per tonne as production costs have risen due to a recent hike in fuel and energy prices amid the ongoing US dollar crisis, according to industry people. “Around 90 per cent of the scrap steel used is …

Welding of the main coolant pipeline (MCP) has been successfully completed in the reactor building of Unit 2 at Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). According to Rosatom, the Russian Contractor of the Rooppur NPP, the entire process of joining, welding, and heat treatment of 28 weld joints took 60 days. …

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has asked authorised dealer (AD) banks to provide service exporters with exporters’ retention quota (ERQ) account services so that they could carry out remittance transactions. The retention quota facility will cover the export of software, ICT services, business services, research and advisory services, reports BSS citing …

External agents like World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are now dictating the relative autonomy of the state as the government has failed to ensure the same, said Distinguished Fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya on Sunday. “As Bangladesh doesn’t have relative autonomy of state …

Stocks in Bangladesh ended a three-day rise yesterday while a third of the turnover of the Dhaka bourse was of that of five companies. The DSEX, the benchmark index of the premier bourse in Bangladesh, fell 8 points, or 0.13 per cent, to close the day at 6,286. The DS30, …

Bangladesh logged higher growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021-22 fiscal year compared to the previous year, but it was 15 basis points below the provisional estimate. The economy grew by 7.1 per cent in 2021-22 fiscal year, up from 6.94 per cent the previous year. However, the provisional …

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to launch campaigns at the grassroots level and motivate people to pay tax as the country’s socioeconomic condition has improved radically in the last 14 years. “If you carry out campaigns there [at the upazila and union levels] …