Losses for the troubled Adani Group, India's second-largest conglomerate, deepened on Friday as shares in its flagship company tumbled another 25%, extending over a week of declines that have wiped out tens of billions of dollars in market value. The debacle, which led Adani Enterprises, the group's flagship company, to cancel a share offering meant to raise $2.5 billion, has drawn calls for regulators to investigate after a U.S. short-selling firm, Hindenburg Research, issued a report claiming the group engages in market manipulation and other fraudulent practices. Adani denies the allegations. Opposition lawmakers blocked Parliament proceedings for a second day Friday, chanting slogans and demanding a probe into the business dealings of coal tycoon Gautam Adani, who is said to enjoy close ties with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government has remained silent. A Finance Ministry spokesperson told The Associated Press there were no plans for any comment. Amit Malviya, the governing Bharatiya Janata Party’s information and technology chief, said in a television interview that the opposition was using Adani’s crisis to target the Modi government and that “regulators are looking into” what happened. India’s market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, also has not commented. The Economic Times newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources, that the agency had asked stock exchanges to check for any unusual activity in Adani stocks. Shares in Adani Enterprises fell as much as 30%, to 1,017 rupees ($12) Friday before recovering to trade about 15% lower. The company's share price has plunged by about 66% since Hindenburg released its report last week, when it stood at 3,436 rupees ($41). Stock in six other Adani-listed companies were down 5% to 10% on Friday. Adani, who made a vast fortune mining coal and trading before expanding into construction, power generation, manufacturing and media, was Asia's richest man and the world's third wealthiest before the troubles began with Hindenburg's report. Read more: Adani cancels a $2.5 billion share offer after stock fraud allegations By Friday, his net worth had halved to $61 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, where he dropped to the 21st spot worldwide. He has said little publicly since the troubles began, though in a video address after Adani Enterprises cancelled its already fully subscribed share offering he promised to repay investors. The company has said it is reviewing its fundraising plans. Hindenburg's report said it was betting against seven publicly listed Adani companies, judging them to have an “85% downside, purely on a fundamental basis owing to sky-high valuations.” Other allegations in the report included concerns over debt, use of offshore shell companies to artificially raise share prices and past investigations into fraud. Adani's speedy, debt-led expansion in recent years caused his net worth to shoot up nearly 2,000%. Even before last week, critics said his ascent was aided by his apparent close ties to Modi and his government. Analysts say he has been successful at aligning his priorities with that of the government by investing in key sectors, but point out that he also has major infrastructure projects in states that are ruled by opposition parties

Despite taking VAT registration, around 22 percent of companies are not submitting their VAT returns. A large number of individuals are also remaining out of the tax network despite having taxable income. A total of 26 lakh people or 52.41 percent of the taxpayers did not submit their income tax returns in the last fiscal year. Of the 50 lakh Taxpayers Identification Number (TIN) holders, some 24 lakh submitted their income tax returns during last fiscal year. As a result, the National Board of Revenue is missing a large amount of revenue. Though the companies are taking VAT for products or services from customers they are not submitting money to the government exchequer. The visiting IMF officials have advised the NBR to increase revenue collection in different forms. Economists and sector insiders have repeatedly suggested reforming the country’s revenue sector in a way that the tax ratio in the GDP would grow as per the volume of the economy. Read more: 20% year-on-year growth: NBR collected record Tk 8,733cr VAT in Aug In south Asia Bangladesh is the lowest tax-GDP ratio. A 2016 World Bank report said that the South Asian tax GDP ratio is 19.1 percent in Nepal, 16 percent in Bhutan, 12 percent in India, 9.9 percent in Afghanistan, 9.1 percent in the Maldive while in Bangladesh it is 8.8 percent. In 2017 Bangladesh's position in tax GDP ratio slid to 7.6. While official data portrays the burgeoning growth of Bangladesh's economy, tax collection shows an almost opposite trend. The tax collection as a percentage of GDP has been stuck at around 7.6 percent in 2017, the lowest in South Asia and one of the lowest in the world. This prompts economists to question the disconnect since revenue receipts should increase in line with the expansion of the economy. Dr Muhammad Abdul Mazid, former NBR chairman, told UNB that large companies might be avoiding VAT through different ways that the NBR cannot detect owing to a lack of capacity. He suggested enhancing the capacity of revenue officials, along with ensuring good governance in the revenue sector so that people encourage paying taxes in a hassle-free environment. Dr Ahsan H Mansur, executive director at Policy Research Institute (PRI), said businesses could not fully make a turnaround from the pandemic-induced losses in FY2022 because of an economic slowdown to some extent, which led to lower growth in VAT collection from large companies. Commenting on the poor collection from the banking sector, he said banks are now going through a bad patch with a slump in profitability. Mansur also suggested reforming the total VAT and tax sector to grow the revenue collection from domestic sources, in line with global standards, he said. Read more: Tax return document not needed for loans up to Tk 20 lakh: NBR "This shows a big mismatch," said Selim Raihan, executive director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling. "It shows that there is no relation between GDP growth and revenue collection although the tax-to-GDP ratio increases in other countries because of the growth of the economy. In the case of Bangladesh, it is a puzzle,” he added. According to NBR, there are 3.72 lakh companies that have taken VAT registration. Although among them 2.90 companies or 78.21 percent file VAT returns regularly. However, still, around 22 percent of companies do not submit VAT returns, according to official sources at the VAT Division of the NBR. A senior official of the NBR's VAT Division told UNB that 3.72 lakh businesses have registered VAT till August this year. Among them, 2.43 lakh or 83.66 percent have filed returns in online platform. As per the VAT Act, companies which have annual turnover below Tk50 lakh do not need VAT registration.  

A fire broke out at Terokhada Sadar market in Khulna on Tuesday night. The fire started around 8pm and gutted about 10-15 shops and warehouses. Read: Fire breaks out at Peninsula Chittagong Being informed, a fire tender of Rupsha Sener Bazar Fire Service rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control after an hour. Nur Islam of Rupsha Sener Bazar Fire Service, said the fire broke out at a shop belonging to Sudhir Saha, a grocer in the market, while he was melting pitch. Read: Angry ride-sharing biker sets bike on fire in Dhaka The owners of the gutted shops have claimed that their losses amount to Tk 2 crore.

A fire broke out at Notunpara Jamia Islamia Rafiqia Madrasa Market in Sunamganj’s Bisshomvorpur upazila Friday morning. The fire started at around 11am and gutted three shops. However, no casualties were reported. Upon information from a journalist, a unit of Bisshomvorpur fire service rushed to the spot and brought the fire under control. Read:Fire breaks out in Faridpur Jute mill, no casualties reported The owners of the burnt shops claimed that their losses amount to Tk 10 lakh. Traffic on the Bisshomvorpur to Tahirpur road was temporarily disrupted due to the incident, said police station sources.