Haque Specialized Group's News

Two minor girls who went missing on Sunday were found dead in a sack at the house of one of their neighbours at Namoshankarbati-Fatepur mahalla in Chapainawabganj municipality area on Tuesday, reports UNB. The deceased were identified as Sumaiya Khatun Meghla, 7, a Class-I student and daughter of Milon Rana, and Mehjabin Akhter Maliha, 6, a nursery student of the same school and daughter of Abdul Malek. Police and locals said Meghla and Maliha went missing after they came out of their houses on Sunday morning in a bid to play. Later, the family members informed the matter to Sadar Model Police Station. A team of the police station raided every house of the locality from Tuesday noon and later they found their bodies at the house of van puller Yeasin Ali around 7:00pm, said officer-in-charge of the police station Mazharul Islam. Police arrested Yeasin, his wife Tanjila Begum, and son's wife Lucky Khatun in this connection, he said.....

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

Foreign borrowing by private-sector firms has fallen substantially, giving a much-needed relief to a number of local banks burdened with excess liquidity, officials said. Although the number of proposals for external loans approved by the scrutiny committee under the leadership of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor has gradually gone up in recent years, they said, the actual inflow of overseas funds has been on a significant decline over the last three financial years since 2013-2014. Bankers, businesspeople and credit-market analysts pointed out some key factors behind the change. These include a narrowing gap of cost of capital between internal and external sources, fluctuation in dollar rate and application of strict monitoring tools by the scrutiny committee against breach of financial rules. According to the central bank statistics, private entrepreneurs drew foreign loans equivalent to US$1840.18 million (over $1.8 billion) in FY'14 and the volume declined to US$977.79 million and US$729.64 million in FY'15 and FY'16 respectively. The data recorded the outstanding aggregate loans worth US$ 2524.28 million, US$ 3194.01 million and US$ 3427.11 million in the last three consecutive fiscal years. In the FY'16, the borrowers repaid US$ 474.00 million worth of principal amount and US$98.20 million and US$ 1.06 in interest and commission respectively. But the scenario was completely different on the number of approved proposals for such loans as the six-man scrutiny committee approved 102 proposals involving US$ 1182.29 million in the calendar year 2013 followed by 162 proposals amounting to US$ 1827.17 million in 2014, 129 proposals involving US$ 1930.25 million while 148 proposals amounting to US$ 1383. 97 million were recorded in 2016. Contacted, Dr. Md. Azim Uddin, a joint director who is representing the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) on the scrutiny committee, said a growing number of private entrepreneurs proposed external borrowing in recent years. Various factors like debt-equity ratio (70:30), paid-up capital of the company and utilization status of previous loans, if taken, were justified before the approval for foreign loans where the rate of interest is less than 4.0 per cent, he said. "We normally crosscheck every document the companies submit to the committee to avert any possible act of fraudulence," he said about the clearance process for borrowing from overseas lenders. Seeking anonymity, a senior BB official said the central bank wants to discourage the private sector from taking external funds as the volume of unused money in local banks is ballooning. "That's why the BB has been issuing various tough criteria for such funds, which were reflected in the official data," he added.      Chairman of the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB) Anis A Khan said the statistics over the external debts indicated that the demand for such finances had declined in recent years. But local-currency transactions for private sector have gone up due mainly to lower interest rate, which is a great respite for the banks, said Mr. Khan, also managing director and CEO of Mutual Trust Bank Ltd (MTB). "Local banks are full with credits and both term loans and working capital are available at single digit. That's why interest of private entrepreneurs in internal borrowing is growing."   Explaining the situation, additional director (research) of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem said average amount of foreign loan per loanee was over US$ 9.0 million in the FY'16, down from 15 million in the previous fiscal. He noted mainly large business groups having full compliance used to take foreign loans allured by its affordable interest rate. If such firms are shown some sorts of discouragement, the average number of loans will further go down. "Yes, it is a good news for the local banks. I think the volume of foreign loans would further decline in the coming days if the gap of cost of the capital between internal and external sources continues declining," the policy researcher predicted.   jubairfe1980@gmail.com....

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

A night guard was chopped to death by muggers in the Bogra district town on Tuesday night. The victim, Abdul Quddus (30), was the son of Yunus Ali of Panchdash village in Shibganj upazila of the district. Quddus was employed as a guard at the Merina Market in the town, reports UNB. Officer-in-Charge of Sadar Police Station Emdadul Haque said while Quddus was on his way to work that evening, around 8.30pm a group of muggers tried to snatch his mobile phone on a road near Government Azizul Haque College (new building). As Quddus resisted, in the ensuing struggle, the attackers chopped him with sharp weapons indiscriminately, leaving him critically injured. Locals took him to Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital, Bogra where doctors declared him dead.....

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

Police arrested a local leader of Jatiyatabadi Matshajibi Dal along with a shutter-gun and one bullet from Taherpur in Manirampur municipality area on Tuesday night. The arrestee was identified as Rabiul Islam, general secretary of the upazila unit of Jatiyatabadi Matshajibi Dal. Tipped off, a team of police conducted a drive in the area and arrested Rabiul around 10.30pm, said Biplob Kumar Nath, officer-in-charge of Manirampur Police Station. The law enforcers also seized one shutter gun and one bullet after searching his body. Rabiul was wanted in 10 cases, including that of sabotage, the OC added.....

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

A young man was stabbed to death and two others were injured by a thief during an incident of stealing at Narashinghapur Bangla Bazar in Ashulia area early Wednesday. The deceased was identified as Babul, 30. Mohsinul Kazi, officer-in-charge of Ashulia Police Station, said the thief entered the house of Mahbubur Rahman Mahi, a cousin of the deceased, at the village and tried to steal valuables around 2.30am. As Babul tried to resist the thief, he stabbed him repeatedly, leaving him dead on the spot. The thief also stabbed Babul's wife Asma and daughter Meherun when they tried to protect Babul. The injured were taken to a local hospital from where they were shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital as their condition deteriorated.....

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