The ‘Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation Bill, 2020’ was passed in Parliament on Tuesday, paving the way for offloading 49 percent share of the corporation in the capital market.   Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader moved the Bill in the House and it was passed by voice vote.   According to the proposed law, the government will own 51 percent shares while 49 percent will be offloaded for the public.   The bill was placed to update an ordinance promulgated in 1961 keeping a provision to offload the shares of BRTC in the capital market.   The authorised capital of the BRTC will be Tk 1,000 crore which will be divided into 100 crore general shares with Tk 10 base price. The authorised capital of the corporation under the existing law is only Tk 6 crore.   The paid-up capital of the corporation is Tk 3 crore in the existing law. Its amount has not been fixed in the proposed law as the BRTC annual general meeting or special general meeting will fix the amount of the paid-up capital but it cannot exceed the amount of the authorised capital.   There will be a 23-member board of directors instead of the existing 11-member one. These directors will come from Local Government Division, Cabinet Division, Finance Division, Road Transport and Highways Division, Public Security Division, Shipping Ministry, Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority, Roads and Highways Department, representatives from the shareholders and one member from every administrative division.   If the amount of shares of the public is from 20 percent to 34 percent of the paid-up capital, then there will be one director from the shareholders while the number will be two if the share of the public is from 34 percent to 49 percent.   The board of directors will at least hold four meetings in a year.     In the bill, a new provision has been incorporated among the functions of the BRTC that it will render transport services during emergency situation like hartal (strike), blockade, transport strike, emergency condition, national disaster, Biswa Ijtema, freedom fighters’ rally and in the case of emergency need of the state.   The corporation can form one and more companies taking prior permission from the government.