Haque Specialized Group's News

The central bank is developing a collateral information system incorporating data on immovable properties which are used for getting loans aiming to prevent document forgery, officials said. The Bangladesh Bank has taken the initiative as dishonest people nowadays increasingly use forged documents and re-use collateral to get loans. In many cases, the banks later could not recover the loan amount when the borrower defaults loans or flees, they added. The information on moveable properties will also be included in the database, when such properties like goods, documents of title, security, instrument, money or any other intangible assets including goodwill will be recognised as collateral of loans. The government recently drafted a law in this regard. Presently, only immovable properties like houses or flats and land property are accepted by banks and financial institutions as collateral against loans. Neighbouring India launched such a database namely 'Mortgage Check' back in 2010 to make available required information about borrowers and their security documents.     The credit information bureau (CIB) of the Bangladesh Bank, at present, is working out 'business requirement' of the information to be needed for inclusion in the database. Sources said already input structure of collateral database, output structure of collateral report, template for online searching, and fixation of matching rule have been completed. The CIB also has collated sample data from different banks and reviewed those. After developing the required software, all the banks will be asked to provide inputs for completing the database. Contacted over telephone Monday, former governor of the Bangladesh Bank Dr Salehuddin Ahmed welcomed the initiative for developing the collateral database. "It's a good start. But we need modernisation of documentation process," he told the FE. He said as the land record system is not digitised until now, checking documents online is difficult. "The officials also have to be careful in scrutinising collaterals," Mr Ahmed noted. Officials said in the recent years, it was found that one security document was used against taking several loans. Even in some cases, forged documents were provided for getting loans which were not scrutinised properly. A banker said such forgery and re-use of collateral are happening very often. These need to be prevented to ensure recovery of loan amount through sale of those properties once the borrower becomes a defaulter. In this case, he referred to massive document forgery in Hallmark-Sonali Bank loan scam and granting of a number of loans in Basic Bank without having necessary collaterals and their re-use against several loans.   General manager of Bangladesh Bank Abu Farah Md Nasser told the FE earlier that currently there is no option for preservation of 'dag', 'khatian' numbers, and quantity of properties/lands used as mortgage against loans in the CIB. As a result, he said, borrowers again can show the same mortgaged properties while taking new loans from other banks.      syful-islam@outlook.com ....

Published at: 2017-08-16 05:00:04

The flood situation continued worsening until 9:00am on Tuesday in four of ten northern districts in the Brahmaputra basin with relief activities geared up further, report agencies. The flooding deteriorated in Jamalpur, Natore and Sylhet also. About 1.3 million (13 lakh) people of 500,000 (five lakh) families are affected as the flood situation deteriorated in Kurigram, Gaibandha, Bogra and Sirajganj with slight improvement in Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Nilphamari, Rangpur and Lalmonirhat districts. Two more people drowned in Lalmonirhat district on Tuesday morning, raising the flood death toll to 29 so far.   Rangpur Divisional Commissioner Kazi Hasan Ahmed said relief activities were intensified further and members of Bangladesh Army, Border Guard Bangladesh and Fire Service were assisting the civil administration and authorities in facing the situation. According to Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) sources, the major rivers were still swelling, though at a slower pace, and flowing above danger marks at 13 points in Kurigram, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Dinajpur, Bogra and Sirajganj districts on Tuesday. The floodwater continued receding in Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Nilphamari, Rangpur and Lalmonirhat districts, but sufferings of flood-hit people still persisted. According to BWDB sources, the Jamuneswari was flowing 126cm above the danger mark at Badarganj in Rangpur and Dharla 96cm above the danger level at Kurigram. The Brahmaputra was flowing 14cm above the danger level at Noonkhawa, 87cm above it at Chilmari and 100cm at Fulchhari while the Ghaghot was flowing 83cm above the level at Gaibandha. The Jamuna was flowing 133cm above the normal level at Bahadurabad, 117cm at Sariakandi, 135cm at Kazipur and 128cm at Sirajganj at 9:00 am on Tuesday. The Punorvoba was flowing 55cm above the danger level at Dinajpur, Karotoa swelled by 17cm at Chak Rahimpur in Gaibandha, the Icha Jamuna by 16cm at Phulbari in Dinajpur. BWDB Executive Engineer for Rangpur Engineer Mahbubur Rahman said the Teesta water level continued falling at all points along its catchment area. Dinajpur District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer (DRRO) Mokhlesur Rahman said, "Over 1.14 lakh (114,000) families are remaining affected by flood in the district where distribution of 300 tonnes of rice, Tk 11 lakh (1.1 million) and 2,000 packets of dry foods continues." Gaibandha DRRO Idris Ali said distribution of 376 tonnes of rice and Tk 8.60 lakh continues among flood-hit people in the district where 4,177 persons have so far been shifted to 69 safer shelters. "Water levels of all major rivers were rising at a slower pace today (Tuesday) while a sharp rise of the Karotoa water level devoured the flood control embankment at Kishamat Cherenga point under Polashbari upazila inundating fresh areas there," he said. Divisional Director (Health) Dr Mozammel Hossain said 700 medical teams were extending healthcare services to the flood-hit people in all eight districts under Rangpur division. In Jamalpur the flood situation deteriorated as the Jamuna swelled by 5:00 cm l at Bahadurabad ghat on Tuesday morning. Around 300,000 (three lakh) people of 40 unions and three municipalities of five upazilas in the district were affected by the floodwater. Mirza Shamsul Alam, station master of Jamalpur Railway Station, said that the train communication on Jamalpur-Dewanganj and Jamalpur-Islampur routes remained suspended since Monday night. A total of 20,968 hectares of aman, ropa aman and other crops were inundated by floodwater. In Natore the flood situation worsened as the water level of the Atrai is flowing 30cm above the danger level in Singra upazila. Market places, houses, different other establishments and low-lying areas of the district have been inundated by the floodwater. The flood situation will worsen, if the rise of the water level continues, said Shudhangshu Kumar Sarker, executive engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board for the district. The government hospital in Nilphamari's Syedpur is operating with basic facilities in waist-deep water while a large portion of the boundary wall of the domestic airport has collapsed after floodwaters started entering the civil aviation compound.If the water level rises further, the hospital may have to be abandoned and flight operations from Syedpur airport suspended.....

Published at: 2017-08-16 05:00:04

The Customs have decided to enhance post-clearance audit (PCA) and reconcile imported and released goods as a strategy for achieving the revenue target for this fiscal. Officials said these two are part of a 14-point instruction meant for ramping up drives for attaining the national target of revenues for the fiscal year 2017-18. In the fiscal 2017-18 budget of over Tk 4.0 trillion, the government has set a target for the Customs to collect Tk 734.36 billion out of aggregate tax-revenue collection worth Tk 2.48 trillion.      The Customs policy wing rolled out the action plan for the 17 customs offices across the country in a recent meeting held at the National Board of Revenue (NBR) headquarters. The major instructions include enhancing the quality of risk management, valuation and declaration management, augmenting auction and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) for out-of-court resolution of disputes "The wing also directed squeezing tax-exemption culture, expediting the process of resolving the pending cases and simplifying the tax-collection process," said one customs official. According to the Trade Facilitation Implementation Guide (TFIG), PCA or audit-based controls are defined by the Revised Kyoto Convention as measures by which the Customs satisfy themselves as to the accuracy and authenticity of declarations through the examination of the relevant books, records, business systems and commercial data held by persons concerned. The meeting was arranged for a stocktaking of the revenue-collection performance of the VAT and customs offices across the country in the past FY 2016-17. The Customs wing of the NBR missed its revised target by Tk 7.70 billion in FY 2016-17. The revised target for the Customs was Tk 550 billion for the last fiscal. Meanwhile, the NBR has found some unavoidable negative factors for the failure to achieve the expected growth in revenue collection, while some commissionerates have missed the opportunity to get to their goals. In the review meeting, the NBR found the highest revenue collected by Chittagong customs house in FY 17. The CCH at the largest seaport of the country collected Tk 367.09 billion, surpassing its target. Customs at the country's largest land-port Benapole collected Tk 38.14 billion followed by the customs house in Dhaka Tk 31.54 billion, Mongla Tk 30.33 billion and the inland container depot at Kamalapur Tk 19.43 billion. There are some 12 VAT commissionerates across the country, seven of which achieved above 18 per cent growth. Of the dozen VAT commissionerates, LTU has collected the highest amount of revenue worth Tk 369.83 billion and boasted the highest growth of 21 per cent. The customs, excise and VAT commissionerate, Chittagong, collected the second-highest amount of revenue at Tk 71.75 billion followed by Dhaka north Tk 61.88 billion and Dhaka south Tk 47.18 billion. Officials said all of the VAT officials were busy and occupied with preparing themselves and motivate businesses on the new VAT and Supplementary Duty Act 2012, which was scheduled to be implemented from July 1, 2017 but was eventually shelved. A number of training programmes and motivational campaigns took place last year to make people aware about the new VAT law that the government later deferred for two years following recommendations put forward by businesses. "Many of the VAT commissionerates could not fully concentrate on revenue collection and recovery of the dues," said an NBR official. Despite all this, the VAT wing archived 19.28 per cent growth collecting Tk 668.91 billion in taxes in FY 17 and surpassed the revised target. Last year's was the highest growth achieved in revenue collection over the years as it was 12.10 per cent and 14.42 per cent in FY 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively. doulot_akter@yahoo.com....

Published at: 2017-08-16 05:00:04

President Donald Trump insisted on Tuesday that left- and right-wing extremists became violent during a weekend rally by white nationalists in Virginia, reigniting a political firestorm over US race relations and his own leadership of a national crisis. Trump, who drew sharp criticism from Republicans and Democrats for his initial response, reverted on Tuesday to his position that both sides were at fault for the violence, a day after bowing to pressure to explicitly condemn the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups. Appearing angry and irritated, the president maintained that his original reaction was based on the facts he had at the time. Blame, he said, belonged on both sides. "You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but I'll say it right now," Trump said, referring to right- and left-wing protesters. From there, the back and forth with reporters turned tense. "Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch," Trump said of the participants in the deadly protest. "There was a group on this side. You can call them the left ... that came violently attacking the other group. So you can say what you want, but that’s the way it is." The violence erupted on Saturday after white nationalists converged in Charlottesville for a "Unite the Right" rally in protest of plans to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee, commander of the pro-slavery Confederate army during the US Civil War. Many of the rally participants were seen carrying firearms, sticks and shields. Some also wore helmets. Counter-protesters likewise came equipped with sticks, helmets and shields. The two sides clashed in scattered street brawls before a car plowed into the rally opponents, killing one woman and injuring 19 others. A 20-year-old Ohio man, James Fields, said to have harboured Nazi sympathies, was charged with murder. Two state police officers also were killed that day in the fiery crash of the helicopter they were flying in as part of crowd-control operations. "MANY SIDES" Addressing the melee for the first time on Saturday, Trump denounced hatred and violence "on many sides." The comment drew sharp criticism across the political spectrum for not explicitly condemning the white nationalists whose presence in the Southern college town was widely seen as having provoked the unrest. Critics said Trump's remarks then belied his reluctance to alienate extreme right-wing organisations, whose followers constitute a devoted segment of his political base despite his disavowal of them. Yielding two days later to a mounting political furor over his initial response, Trump delivered a follow-up message expressly referring to the "KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists and other hate groups" as "repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans." Trump's detractors dismissed his revised statements as too little too late. His remarks on Tuesday inflamed the controversy further. Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke immediately applauded Trump on Twitter. "Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa," Duke wrote, referring to Black Lives Matter (BLM) and anti-facists. Democrats seized on Trump's latest words as evidence that Trump saw white nationalists and those protesting against them as morally equivalent. "By saying he is not taking sides, Donald Trump clearly is," Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer of New York, said. "When David Duke and white supremacists cheer your remarks, you're doing it very, very wrong." In a similar vein, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, said Trump's characterisation of the violence missed the mark. “Neo-Nazis, Klansmen and white supremacists came to Charlottesville heavily armed, spewing hatred and looking for a fight. One of them murdered a young woman in an act of domestic terrorism, and two of our finest officers were killed in a tragic accident while serving to protect this community. This was not 'both sides,'" he said. Administration officials, hoping to put the controversy behind them after the remarks on Monday, worried that the controversy would now last for days and, potentially, affect the president's ability to make legislative and policy achievements. Asked about the White House's next steps, one official said: "I think next steps are just to stop talking." FALLOUT Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO labour federation representing 12.5 million workers, became the latest member of Trump's advisory American Manufacturing Council to resign in protest, saying, "We cannot sit on a council for a president who tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism," Trumka said. "President Trump's remarks today repudiate his forced remarks yesterday about the KKK and neo-Nazis." Three other members of the council - the chief executives of pharmaceutical maker Merck & Co Inc, sportswear company Under Armour Inc and computer chipmaker Intel Corp - resigned on Monday. In his remarks on Tuesday, Trump also sympathised with protesters seeking to keep Lee's statue in place but offered no equivalent remarks for those who favoured its removal. "You had people in that group ... that were there to protest the taking down of a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E Lee to another name," Trump said. Trump also grouped former presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, two of the nation's founding fathers, together with Confederate leaders such as Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson, who fought to separate Southern states from the Union, noting that all were slave owners. "Was George Washington a slave owner? Will George Washington now lose his status? Are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson? ... Because he was a major slave owner," Trump said. On Tuesday, Trump explained his initial restrained response by saying: "The statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement, but you don't make statements that direct unless you know the facts. It takes a little while to get the facts." In what became at times a heated exchange with reporters shouting questions, Trump said, "You also had people that were very fine people on both sides." He said that while neo-Nazis and white nationalists "should be condemned totally," Trump said protesters in the other group "also had trouble-makers. And you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets and with the baseball bats. You got a lot of bad people in the other group too."   ....

Published at: 2017-08-16 05:00:04

Three female suicide bombers have carried out an attack that has killed at least 27 people in north-eastern Nigeria, officials say. Dozens were injured when the women on Tuesday blew themselves up outside a refugee camp near Maiduguri in Borno state - a stronghold of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. There has been an upsurge in violence in the city in recent months. Boko Haram has been fighting to set up an Islamic state since 2009. A report published by US anti-terrorist researchers last week said it is the first insurgency in history to use more women suicide bombers than men. Baba Kura, a member of a vigilante force set up to fight the jihadists, told a global news agency on Tuesday that the first bomber blew herself up near the camp, triggering panic. "People were trying to close their shops when two other female bombers triggered their explosives, causing most of the casualties," he said. Last year, Nigeria's government said that Boko Haram had been defeated. But correspondents say that the army is failing to stop the attacks, and people have continued to flee their homes in Borno State and poured into camps.....

Published at: 2017-08-16 05:00:04