Haque Specialized Group's News

Arsenal's Champions League hopes lie in tatters at the last-16 stage yet again following a first-leg battering at Bayern Munich on Wednesday, reports BBC. The Gunners, who have been eliminated in the first knockout round of the competition in each of the last six seasons, twice by Bayern, not only conceded five goals but over 75 per cent possession in Germany. Their challenge lasted until the break thanks to Alexis Sanchez, who followed up his own missed penalty to equalise after Arjen Robben's superbly-struck 25-yard opener. But after Arsenal lost Laurent Koscielny to injury early in the second half, Bayern ran riot during a 10-minute period in which Robert Lewandowski headed home before Thiago Alcantara scored twice. Substitute Thomas Muller rubbed salt in the wounds with a late fifth. It leaves Arsenal with a near impossible task in the second leg and heaps more pressure on manager Arsene Wenger, who now only has the FA Cup as a realistic source of silverware in what will go down as another failed season.....

Published at: 2017-02-16 00:00:08

Judicial activities in the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal here are being hampered as it has no Judge for the last seven months. Sources said some 2,500 cases are now pending with this special court, causing sufferings to justice seekers. The post of the Judge fell vacant on July 13, 2016 as its previous Judge Abu Mansur MD Ziaul Haq was transferred to another court. The sources said the tribunal was set up in 2000 for disposing of sensitive cases related to woman and child repression in eight upazilas of the district. Talking to some litigants and lawyers, the UNB correspondent came to know that the hearings of some important cases are now held at the District and Sessions Judge Court, which is already overburdened with its own huge pending cases. Contacted, special public prosecutor of Women and Children Repression Prevention tribunal, Zahurul Haider Babu, stressed the need for filling the vacant post immediately to clear the judicial backlog at the tribunal. Of the total cases remained pending with the tribunal, 1,850 were filed under Women and Children Repression Act while 428 under court petition, 135 under human trafficking act and two under civil revision. President of Satkhira Bar Association adv Abdul Majid said the appointment of a judge to the tribunal has become essential to reduce the sufferings of justice seekers.  ....

Published at: 2017-02-16 00:00:08

Finance Minister AMA Muhith is expected to open a series of pre-budget consultations with key stakeholders on February 26 in preparation for formulating the next national budget, which is presumed to be yet bigger. The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has already prepared a calendar of consultation containing a total of 14 meetings until May 12 next. The Finance Division of the MoF will supervise the meetings and also prepare minutes of the meetings to be collated into the new budget, according to an official document. Officials said the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the main agency for mobilising government revenues to finance the budget, has been asked to join all of the budget-preparatory meetings. The Bank and Financial Institutions Division of the MoF will join the meetings which they consider important for them. Members of the planning ministry will also be requested to join in the parleys. In the pre-budget consultations with the key stakeholders, Mr Muhith will hear their expectations from the budget, destined to be presented in parliament sometime in June. During the pre-budget meetings, the stakeholders are likely to demand increased financial and policy supports from the government. According to the calendar, Finance Minister Mr Muhith will open the discussions by holding meeting with leading think-tanks on February 26. A total of four such outfits--Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, Economic Research Group, the state-owned Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, and Bangladesh Economic Association -- will attend consultation on February 26 at the state guesthouse Padma. The finance minister will meet leaders of Non-governmental Organisations on March 07 at the National Economic Council office at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the city. Leading economists and professionals will meet with the finance minister on March 09 at the state guesthouse Padma. The minister will sit with all senior secretaries and secretaries in two phases--and the first one is scheduled for March 28 at the secretariat. He will meet leaders of Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) on March 31. Mr Muhith will parley with chairmen and members of all parliamentary standing committees on April 02. He will again have two exclusive meetings with the chairmen of all the parliamentary standing committees on April 04 and April 06 respectively. The finance minister will attend four live budget discussions with leading electronic media. He will also meet with editors and senior journalists on May 05, ahead of getting down to cobbling together the feedbacks in the forthcoming national budget for 2017-18. Mr Muhith has already aired indications that the next budget would be yet bigger in size -- worth around four-trillion taka.              jasimharoon@yahoo.com....

Published at: 2017-02-15 00:00:09

A Chinese company involved with the Padma bridge river training work has been asked to submit a detailed work plan within 15 days following its poor execution performance in last two years. Sources said the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project office in a meeting with high officials of Sinohydro Corporation Ltd on Tuesday set the deadline for submission of the detailed work plan. "They (Sinohydro) have been asked to submit the work plan with all these details as progress of the country's important infrastructure project has been delayed for their poor performance," said an official. He said the company has also been directed to bring right experts to the project site without any delay as it could not achieve its expected performance since the work order was awarded in December 2014. Sinohydro high officials including vice-chairman and foreign advisors from the USA and UK assured the authority of expediting the process and replacing experts soon. Panel of experts Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, Alamgir Mujibul Haq and Ainun Nishat were also present. Execution progress in the Padma Bridge stands far behind the target mainly due to poor performance of the project's main two Chinese contractors. According to the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA), the project's overall progress was 40 per cent until January with main bridge-construction work constituting 35 per cent and river training 28.5 per cent. The percentage of works could reach 40 per cent due to the completion of 88 per cent of work on Jajira approach road and 100 per cent on Mawa approach road. China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Company Limited remained 4 per cent behind its target in carrying out the 6.15-kilometre bridge construction work while Sinohydro Corporation Limited 6 per cent of its target. The BBA, the executing agency of the country's mega project, already held a meeting with the main bridge contractor and directed them to take necessary steps for completing the work by December 2018. Earlier, the project director of PMPB also sent several letters to the headquarters of the company, expressing his dissatisfaction over poor performance. However, sources said the river-training work has been hampered for the Chinese company's inability to confirm the design. It is alleged that the company lacks expertise according to the design and it has been pursuing the BBA for change in design. "We felt the need for intervention in their (Sinohydro) performance," said project director Mohammad Shafiqul Islam when his attention was drawn to the poor performance of the company. He, however, said in most cases, project implementation process is found going on slowly in the first half. It is learnt that the Chinese contractor passed the half of its working period to mobilise materials but could not build necessary blocks and slaps to start the river training work. But blocks were not built as per the design. The Sinohydro delegation assured the meeting of continuing monitoring on the important Padma bridge project from now and taking necessary actions in this regard. smunima@yahoo.com....

Published at: 2017-02-15 00:00:09

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) could not develop an e-payment system suitable for paying large amount of tax online in about five years since introduction of a platform. The platform is capable only to perform small amount transactions. The existing system was introduced on May 26 in 2012 to facilitate online payment of large volume of income tax, customs duty and Value Added Tax (VAT). It was, however, found fit for transactions of only small amounts and has since been used by a very small percentage of the income taxpayers - less than 1.0 per cent - who used the system during the income tax fairs only, officials said. The taxpayers have so far found the e-payment system less attractive and concerned about the system security - particularly after the cyber heist in the central bank. Both tax officials and taxpayers felt the necessity to increase capacity for accepting large transactions to be credited to the national exchequer electronically. Meanwhile, the agreement on maintenance and development of the existing e-payment system has expired on October 31, 2015 and not yet renewed by the board. Talking to the FE, a senior NBR official said the board has moved to develop the e-payment infrastructure and make it suitable for paying large amount of tax by removing the existing barriers. It is expected to sign soon an agreement with local software developing company -- Data Soft Systems Bangladesh Limited -- for three years for maintenance and development of e-payment portal. According to Public Procurement Rules-2008, rules-104 (D) of single source selection method, the NBR decided to sign the agreement with retrospective effect. A draft of notification award has been prepared in this regard. Recently, the NBR has sought opinion from all the board members on the agreement, officials said. The existing e-payment system was developed with the initiative of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank (WB). A senior official of the NBR said Data Soft was the developer of the system, but contract with the IFC for its maintenance expired on October 31, 2015. Now, the NBR has to sign a fresh contract with the company for maintenance and development of the system. The company is currently maintaining the e-payment system without contract as per verbal assurance of the NBR. After signing the agreement, the NBR will pay the dues against their services with retrospective effect. Only the account holders having debit and credit cards of 26 scheduled banks of the country, which are connected to the Q-Cash network, are eligible for paying tax through the e-payment system. The NBR, the Bangladesh Bank, Sonali Bank, and the Comptroller and Auditor General's office are the coordinators of the system. doulot_akter@yahoo.com....

Published at: 2017-02-15 00:00:09