Haque Specialized Group's News

The government has decided to provide Tk 2.50 billion to Probashi Kallyan Bank (PKB), a specialised bank, to help it become a scheduled bank, sources said. The decision was taken at a meeting Tuesday at the ministry of finance (MoF) with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair. The bank needs to have Tk 4.0 billion as paid-up capital for becoming a scheduled bank. Presently, the bank's paid-up capital is Tk 1.0 billion. The meeting also decided that the Wage Earners' Welfare Board (WEWB) will provide the remaining Tk 500 million as equity. The Board as of now is the majority shareholder of the bank. The meeting also decided that after its conversion into a scheduled bank, the PKB will start general banking activities on a limited scale among migrant workers, returnees, and their relatives through collecting deposits and providing loans. According to officials, the PKB, as a non-scheduled bank, is not allowed to carry out the functions of a scheduled bank. The move to turn PKB into a scheduled bank was taken recently aiming to utilise it for bringing more remittances to the country through legal channel as inward remittance flow has been declining.   Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had asked the ministries concerned to take steps for bringing remittance through PKB alongside existing channels to help raise the inflow. Last December, the ministry of expatriates' welfare and overseas employment (MEWOE) at an inter-ministerial meeting discussed ways for turning the PKB into a scheduled bank and searched for options to get money for raising its paid-up capital. The PKB was established in 2010 to provide collateral-free loan to workers going abroad for employment, give loan to returnees to rehabilitate them with employment within the country, facilitate sending remittance, and encourage the wage-earners to invest in the country. The bank has 54 branches across the country and a booth at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. It accepts deposits, extends loans to migrant workers and returnees, and buys and sells foreign currencies. Up to November 2016, the PKB sanctioned loan worth Tk 890 million. syful-islam@outlook.com ....

Published at: 2017-03-15 00:00:04

The National Board of Revenue (NBR), the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the Bangladesh Bank (BB) with backup from IGC and DFID will make joint efforts to stop money laundering from the country. Officials said the International Growth Centre (IGC) and the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK will provide financial and technical support to the trio in carrying out the task smoothly. The IGC is funded by the British DFID, based at the London School of Economics (LSE), and works in partnership with the University of Oxford. The decision on support was taken in a meeting held on the NBR premises in Dhaka Tuesday. Senior secretary of the Internal Resources Division (IRD) and NBR chairman Md Nojibur Rahman, ACC commissioner and former NBR chairman Dr Nasir Uddin Ahmed and IGC director Qadir Khan, among others, attended the meeting. Contacted, the NBR chairman said the IGC representatives narrated their experiences of working with counterparts in many developing countries to conduct research on issues related to revenue policy and administration such as staff motivation, transfer pricing, and data analysis. "Money laundering also came up for discussion. We designated the director general of research and statistics wing as focal point for this purpose," he said. Official sources said the IGC would provide support to the BB, the NBR and the ACC in finding out those involved in money laundering and in combating the offence from the root. They said the centre would provide need-based support to the entities and help in building awareness. Available NBR and BB data will be used for checking money laundering and capital flight from the country. Currently, customs intelligence is also working on this issue on a priority basis. In the meeting, IGC director Adnan Qadir Khan said the Growth Centre is willing to extend all-out cooperation to the government at its own cost to check money laundering -- a global problem against which the UN has spearheaded a campaign. He sought support from the NBR and the ACC in the conducting research into this money-laundering issue. The IGC aims to promote sustainable growth in developing countries by providing demand-led policy advice based on frontier research. It directs a global network of world-leading researchers and in-country teams in Africa and South Asia and works closely with partner governments to generate high-quality research and policy advice on key growth challenges. doulot_akter@yahoo.com  ....

Published at: 2017-03-15 00:00:04

US President Donald Trump paid $38 million in tax on more than $150m income in 2005, a leaked tax return shows. Two pages of the tax return were revealed by US TV network MSNBC on Tuesday, triggering an angry response from the White House. It said publishing the tax return was illegal. Trump refused to release his tax returns during the election campaign, breaking with a long-held tradition. The two pages were a fraction of the complete return and did not include details of Trump's income. Correspondents say the leak is still significant because so little is known about President Trump's tax returns and the new information will increase pressure on him to release more. The two pages show that Trump paid $5.3 million in federal income tax and an extra $31 million in what is called alternative minimum tax (AMT). AMT was set up nearly 50 years ago to stop the wealthiest people from using deductions and loopholes to avoid paying taxes. The $38 million bill was an effective tax rate of about 24 per cent, higher than the average American citizen would pay but below the 27.4 per cent averaged by higher-earning taxpayers.....

Published at: 2017-03-15 00:00:04

Police recovered the throat-slit body of a sexagenarian man from a cremation ground at Morapura Tuk in Jaintiapur upazila of Sylhet on Tuesday afternoon, reports UNB. A group of cowboys spotted the body of Nityananda Das, 60, a resident of Uttar Mohail village, around 5:00pm and informed police, said officer-in-charge of Jaintiapur Model Police Station Shafiul Kabir. Later, police recovered the body and sent it to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital for autopsy. Family members of the victim said NItyananda, who had been at loggerheads with a relative over the ownership of land, left home around 1:00pm and did not return.....

Published at: 2017-03-15 00:00:04

Detectives arrested a couple along with two kilograms of hemp from Derua village in Magura Sadar upazila on Tuesday night. The arrestees were identified as Bulbul Ahmmed, 40, and his wife Chayna, 25, a resident of the same village, reports UNB. Tipped off, a team of Detective Branch (DB) of police raided the house of Bulbul at the village at night and arrested Bulbul and Chayna while they were selling the hemp, said Azmal Huda, officer-in-charge of Sadar Police Station. Later, the law enforcers recovered two kilograms of hemp from their possessions. A case was filed.  ....

Published at: 2017-03-15 00:00:04