Bangladesh
Dengue: 229 more hospitalized, no fresh death reported
Another 229 new dengue patients were hospitalized across the country in 24 hours till Wednesday morning.
The number of fatalities from the mosquito-borne disease remained static at 59 as no fresh death was reported during the period, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Among the new patients, 176 were undergoing treatment in Dhaka’s hospitals while the remaining 53 cases were reported from outside the division.
Some 1,018 patients diagnosed with dengue are receiving treatment in the country, it said.
Read: Dengue cases likely to come down within a month: LGRD Minister
Of them, 819 patients are receiving treatment at different hospitals in the capital while the remaining 199 were listed outside Dhaka.
Among the deceased, 54 died in Dhaka city alone, two each in Chattogram and Khulna divisions and one in Rajshahi.
Some 16,451 patients have been admitted to different hospitals with dengue since January.
So far, 15,374 dengue patients have left hospitals after recovery, said DGHS.
Read: 'National laws need to be revised to tackle dengue menace'
The highest number of dengue patients hospitalized in a single day so far this year was 343 patients on September 7.
In August the country recorded the highest number of 7,698 dengue cases of the current year.
In July, 2,286 people were diagnosed with dengue and 12 died while in June 272 cases were recorded with no deaths.
Proposals for LNG, petroleum, wheat import get clearance
The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase at a meeting on Wednesday approved 12 proposals, including the import of LNG, liquid petroleum and wheat.
The meeting also endorsed the installation of a 50MW solar power plant in private sector to supply electricity to the government entity.
Besides, two proposals received approval in principle of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affair (CCEA) for the purchase of a huge number of syringes to be used for Covid-19 vaccination and also the import of petroleum for meeting local demands.
As per the approvals of the CCEA, the Department of Drug Administration under the Public Health Service Division received a nod to procure 11 crore auto disable (AD) syringes for vaccinating people from the local JMI Syringes and Medical Devices through a direct procurement method.
The BPC will purchase 80,000 metric tons of furnace oil, known as heavy fuel oil, from different countries under the G-to-G contracts.
Read Cabinet committee approves 4 proposals, including LNG import
Of the proposals approved by the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase, the state-owned Petrobangla will import some 33.60 lakh MMBtu LNG (liquefied natural gas) from the international spot market through quotation.
Vitol Asia Pte, Singapore, will supply the bulk LNG at a rate of $29.89 per million British thermal units (MMBtu).
About the proposal, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said so far this has been the highest rate at which Bangladesh has to import LNG from international market.
“We don’t there where the price will go up….the prices of both gas and liquid petroleum are rising fast... it’s a big concern for us,” he told UNB.
A proposal of the Power Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources to set up a 50MW solar power plant by a private sponsor received the approval.
As per the proposal, the Joint Venture of (1) Hero Future Energies Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore and (2) Business Research International Corporation Inc. (BRIC), Panama will set up the plant in Terkhada area in Khulna and the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will purchase electricity over 20 years.
Read Bangladesh signs MoU with Malaysia on LNG supply
Nasrul Hamid said pharmaceutical company Reneta is the local agent of the BRIC.
The BPDB will have to pay a total of Tk 1,328.90 crore to the sponsor company for the purchase of the electricity at a rate of 10.25 US Cents (equivalent to Tk 8.20) per kilowatt hour.
Another proposal of the power division also received the approval of the committee to award a contract to J&C Impex Ltd., Dhaka, to procure and install the Hot Gas Path Inspection of the Gas Turbine of the 225 MW Shikolbaha Power Station at Chattogram at a contract value of Tk 102.94 crore.
A proposal of the Food Directorate General of Food Ministry to import 50,000 metric tons of wheat from Singapore-based Agrocorp International Pte Ltd. at Tk 179.53 crore received the committee’s approval.
The committee also approved proposals for awarding contracts for printing and supply of books for education boards, import of 30,000 metric tons of fertilizer and construction of a number of roads under the roads and highways department.
Writ seeks judicial inquiry into e-commerce scams
A writ was filed before the High Court on Wednesday seeking a judicial inquiry into fraudulent business of e-commerce entities.
Barrister Mohammad Humayun Kabir Pallab and Barrister Mohammad Kawser filed the petition on behalf of human rights organization Law and Life Foundation and two clients of controversial e-commerce platforms Evaly and e-orange.
Eighteen including Secretary of Commerce Ministry, Secretary of Finance Ministry, Secretary of Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Secretary of Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Governor of Bangladesh Bank, Chairman of National Board of Revenue, Director General of National Consumer Rights Protection Department and Chairman of Competition Commission have been made respondents t0 the writ.
Confirming the information, Barrister Pallab said a HC bench comprising Justice JBM Hasan and Justice Md Rajik Al Jalil will hear the writ petition on Thursday.
“In the last few years, some companies have embezzled thousands of crores of taka luring customers in the name of various unethical offers and discounts due to lack of effective surveillance by the concerned government departments,” he said.
This way, he said, a huge amount of money has been laundered abroad.
He said a writ petition has been filed against these misdeeds demanding immediate action in the interest of the customer including judicial investigation.
On Monday, the stakeholders filing the writ sent a legal notice seeking action in the public interest, alleging various forms of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering by e-commerce-based organizations.
The writ petition was filed as no action was taken by the government even after the notice, concluded Barrister Pallab.
Robbery at Sylhet ATM booth: 3 held in Dhaka, Habiganj
Dhaka, Sep 22 (UNB)- Detectives have arrested three people from Dhaka and Habiganj in connection with the robbery from United Commercial Bank's ATM booth in Osmani Nagar Thana area of Sylhet district on Monday.
The arrestees are Md. Shamim Ahmed, Nur Mohammad Sebul and Md. Abdul Halim.
Tipped off, a team of Detective Branch (Cyber and Special Crime division) conducted simultaneous drives in different areas in Dhaka city and Habiganj district on Tuesday and arrested them.
The detectives also seized Tk 10,8000, out of total Tk 24 lakh , 2 mobile phone sets, one knife and 3 pieces of cloth used in the theft.
Briefing reporters at the DMP media centre on Wednesday, Joint Commissioner (DB-North)) Harun-ur-Rashied said the robbers beat up the guard at the ATM booth on the ground floor of Haji Yunus Ullah Market, Natun Bazar of Sherpur in Sylhet and tied up his hands and face with scotch tape at around 3:15 am on September 12. The robbers then broke lock of the ATM machine and took away over Tk 24 lakh.
A case was filed with Osmaninagar Police Station of Sylhet on September 12. The Detectives of Cyber and Special Crime Division started an investigation following the request of the investigating officer of the case of Osmani Nagar police station.
Md. Shamim Ahmed, the gang leader of the robbery gang, used to watch Indian mega serial CID regularly. And thus he learnt the technique of breaking the ATM machine and planned to loot money.
Covid claims 36 more lives, positivity rate 4.76%
Covid-19 claimed 36 more lives and infected 1,376 others in 24 hours till Wednesday morning.
The latest cases were detected after testing 28,736 samples showing a slight increase in the daily case positivity rate from Tuesday’s 4.69 percent to 4.79 percent, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Tuesday, the country witnessed the lowest case positivity rate in around six months.
According to DGHS, the fresh number of deaths took the country’s total Covid-19 fatalities to 27,313 while the caseload mounted to 15,47,176.
Besides, the mortality rate slightly increased to 1.77 percent from 1.76 percent.
Besides, the recovery rate also increased to 97.34 with the recovery of 1,427 patients during the period.
READ: Chevron provides Covid-19 support to community hospitals
So far, 15,06,136 people have recovered from the deadly virus infections, it added.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that the daily case positivity rate should remain at 5% or below for 14 days before mass unlocking.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh eased its lockdown restrictions on August 11, even though public health experts warned of Delta variant spread.
READ: India to restart Covid vaccine exports to COVAX, neighbours
On September 12, after nearly 18 months, primary, secondary and higher secondary schools in Bangladesh reopened with a slew of Covid-safety protocols in place.
Speakers at a meeting call for more focus on loan to women entrepreneurs
Bank-client relationship is not the only criteria for the stimulus package, rather the loan can be given based on books of accounts as per the circular, Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Abu Farah Md. Nasser said on Wednesday.
He was speaking at the 9th Financial Sector Development Working Committee (FSDWC) meeting organized virtually by Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD).
Nasser and NKA Mobin, acting President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) co-chaired the meeting.
Nasser also observed that currently banks like Brac Bank are improving the modalities of SME banking.
READ: Humayun bats for women entrepreneurs at SME Foundation event
He said Credit Guarantee Scheme (CGS) has been implemented for the collateral-free loan and in each division of the country, collateral-free loan lending has been prioritized.
He said 10 percent collateral-free loan has been directed to provide to the women entrepreneurs.
Some eight percent of the total loan has to be gone to the women entrepreneurs at five percent interest and one percent incentive has been announced for both women entrepreneurs and banks for recognizing good borrowers, said Nasser.
He informed the meeting that the Ministry of Industries has already been requested to bring alternatives for trade licenses for the cottage, micro, and small enterprises so that the trade license issue in lending can be resolved.
The deputy governor said Bangladesh Bank has introduced a new scheme of Tk 500 crore collateral-free loan through agent banking, MFS, and bank sub-branch to provide finance to the rural and ultra-poor individuals and businesses.
He said the scheme would follow the model of Leno financing to process loan applications in the shortest possible time and funding at the grassroots level.
He said the central bank has implemented policies in such a way that will ensure liquidity support of banks and reduce the burden of cost of funds for the private sector, especially CMSMEs.
He also mentioned the initiative of the Central Bank and World Bank in setting up an independent entity for payment gateway for CMSMEs.
He emphasized the proactive initiatives of Bangladesh Bank and the country's scheduled banks that up to June 2020 Tk 2,43,000crore disbursement has been made to the SMEs by Banks.
BUILD CEO Ferdaus Ara Begum highlighted the implementation status of the last 8th FSDWC meeting and praised Bangladesh Bank (BB) for taking initiatives for supporting implementation of 15 out of the 20 recommendations proposed by BUILD in the earlier meeting.
These are fortnightly monitoring, increase in stimulus package volume, separate arrangements for cottage and micro traders, separate allocation for women, extension of the loan repayment period, collateral-free loan, credit guarantee scheme and expansion of agent banking, and considering alternatives for trade license for E-commerce.
READ: Covid: A catalyst for women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh!
She raised the need for a comprehensive database for CMSMEs supported by the SME Foundation, A2I, and Bangladesh Bank and thanked Bangladesh Bank for increasing the limit of MFIs for disbursing loans for the low income group.
NKA Mobin said addressing the CMSME definition would help deal with the challenges of CMSME financing and all the organisations related to CMSME development can be brought under a single umbrella.
He referred to the DCCI survey conducted in 2021 on its members which revealed that 45% of the applicants were not allowed by the banks to get stimulus package loans and half of the approved loans have not been disbursed on time.
Md. Kamran Hasnain, Research Associate, BUILD delivered a presentation on Redesigning COVID Stimulus Linking to Employment, Consumption & Investment for Next Round Support.
He shared insights from the preliminary findings of the BUILD-UNIDO survey conducted in March-July, 2021.
According to the survey findings, only six percent of vulnerable SMEs have received stimulus packages while 36 per cent of Asian firms received them.
All SMEs & large firms faced loss of sales, while resilient Asian large firms witnessed positive sales growth.
It indicates a lack of consumer demand in Bangladesh during March to July 2021.
The survey also found that layoff is higher in SMEs than large industries in both country and regional contexts.
The presentation also referred to another study of BUILD where country comparison of policies specifically targeting employment, demand investment related support have been shown.
Imtiaz Uddin of Premier Bank endorsed the proposal of BUILD for extending the moratorium so that banks do not have to face liquidity crisis.
Dr. Nadia Binte Amin, Director of FBCCI added that the women entrepreneurs (WEs) should be considered with utmost care while disbursing FSPs.
Ali Sabet, Team Leader, PRISM said that Bangladesh Bank may consider the individual entity for managing credit guarantee schemes.
He suggested utilization of the huge network of BSCIC for reaching up to the level of cottage industries.
Dr. M. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Executive Director, Center for Microfinance and Development, University of Dhaka said that a comparison of different stimulus packages among similar countries in terms of GDP can be conducted to have a better stimulus package comparison scenario.
The working committee meeting was participated by the representatives of the central bank, a number of scheduled banks, academicians, business chambers and associations, entrepreneurs from the private sector.
ACC seeks wealth statements of 3 engineers, 3 others
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Wednesday asked six people including three engineers of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh( Caab) and Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) to submit their wealth statements.ACC director Syed Iqbal Hossain issued separate notices in this regard, Deputy Director of ACC Public Relations Office Muhammad Arif Sadeq told UNB.Those who were served notices are-Supervising Engineer of Caab Maksudul Islam, Engineer of Civil Aviation -2 Mohammad Yunus Bhuiya and his two wives-Mariam Nesa and Maruf Akter, Supervising Engineer of LGED Mujibur Rahman and his wife Kamrunnahar.
The notice sought statements of their all immovable or movable properties acquired in the names of their own and their dependents.The source of income and the detailed information on how those were acquired will have to be submitted to ACC within 21 working days of receiving the notice.If they fail to submit the statements of assets within the stipulated time or submit a false statement, action will be taken against them as per the Anti-Corruption Commission Act.
Another case filed against Evaly CEO, Chairman
In more trouble for the Evaly CEO Mohammad Russel and his wife Shamima Nasrin, chairman of the e-commerce company, another aggrieved customer on Wednesday filed a case against them for the company’s failure to deliver an AC for which he paid Tk. 85,000 in advance.
This was the fourth case of embezzlement and fraudulence filed against the company’s executives in past one week. The couple was arrested on September 16 by Rapid Action Battalion from their Mohammadpur flat.
Read: Another case filed against Evaly CEO, wife, 12 others
The latest case was filed by Muzahidur Rahman before Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court on Wednesday.
Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Debdas Chandra Adhikary recorded the plaintiff’s statement and asked the Dhanmondi Police Station to accept it as FIR, Special Public Prosecutor Azad Rahman said.
Read: . Evaly CEO remanded again, wife lands in jail
According to the case statement, Muzahidur Rahman ordered a two ton AC of General Company and paid Tk 85,000 for it, said prosecutor adding that Evaly did not deliver the product.
Earlier on Tuesday, a Dhaka Court placed Rassel on a one-day remand in an embezzlement case filed with Dhanmondi Model Police Station. His wife Shamima was sent to jail.
Savings certificates: Finance Minister defends profit lowering
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday said the government’s decision to lower the interest or profit rates on different national savings instruments will not harm small depositors.
Mustafa Kamal said it will bring a balance between the interest rates of banks and other available options of interest earnings.
"This won’t harm the interest of the grassroots-level depositors as interest rates on deposits upto Tk 15 lakh would not be lowered,” he told reporters responding to a question on the government’s recent decision on Wednesday.
He said savings instruments were introduced mainly for the benefits of the pensioners. “But there’re many depositors who keep money over Tk 1 crore under this scheme shouldn’t get the same benefits.”
Read:Interest rates of savings certificates not lowered: Govt -
The finance minister’s remarks came against the backdrop of the government’s decision to reduce the profit rates on five types of savings certificates in the country.
On Tuesday, the Internal Resources Division of the Finance Ministry issued a notification to reduce the profit rates of savings certificates.
It said the profit margins of five-year Bangladesh Savings Certificates, three-month profit-based Savings Certificates, Pensioner Savings Certificates and Family Savings Certificates have been lowered.
It also said the interest rates of term-deposit will also decline, but general profit rates of Post Office Savings Certificates will remain unchanged.
At present, any depositor can annually obtain 11.28 percent profit on the five-year Bangladesh Savings Certificate.
But under the new rules, those who have invested more than Tk 15 lakh in these savings certificates will get a profit at 10.3 percent. And if the investment is more than 30 lakh, the profit rate will be 9.3 percent.
Mustafa Kamal said the government does not want the large scale depositors to get the same benefits like those being given to the small-scale depositors.
Read: Budget deficit: Savings certificates, non-bank sources to be tapped for one third of domestic findings
Solar Power
Responding to another question on approval of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase for a solar power plant to a Panama-based company, the finance minister said he would inform the media about the details of the company later.
There are widespread allegations as many shell companies receive company registration from Panama to evade the taxes to legalize their investment of black money.
S Korea donates Taekwondo equipment to Bangladesh Taekwondo Federation
The government of South Korea has donated 190 Taekwondo equipment to Bangladesh Taekwondo Federation (BTF).
The equipment that includes 40 sets of headgears, body protectors, arm guards and leg guards respectively as well as 30 sets of kicking paddles were handed at the National Sports Complex of Bangladesh in presence of South Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Lee Jang-keun.
Kazi Morshed Hossain Kamal, President of Bangladesh Taekwondo Federation(BTF), Mahmudul Islam Rana, Secretary General of BTF and Lee Ju-sang, Korean Taekwondo Grand Master were present.
Stating that Taekwondo is not only sports but also a martial art learned by elite soldiers, policemen and border guards contributing to the security of Bangladesh, Ambassador Lee said that Taekwondo has been playing an important role in the promotion of Korea-Bangladesh ties.
Ambassador Lee also said Taekwondo is helping young people to guard themselves against the virus both physically and mentally in the unprecedented difficult time due to the corona pandemic.