Walton Monday launched a hire purchase and family protection policy along with a one-stop service solution. Under the hire purchase and family protection policy, protection cards will be issued to those customers who will buy products in instalments from any Walton Plaza across the country, Walton said. In case of the death of the buyer during the instalment period, Walton Plaza will provide financial assistance, ranging from Tk50,000 to Tk300,000, to the respective nominee, it added. Read More: Walton Primo R10 Review: Does it offer value for money? Also, financial assistance from Tk25,000 to Tk1,50,000 will be given on the death of a family member of the respective buyers, the company said. In this case, the unpaid instalment will be adjusted from the payable financial assistance and then the rest of the amount will be paid to the buyer or his family. Also, Walton Plaza launched a one-stop service Monday to provide all information and services to buyers and traders. Under the one-stop service, customers and traders will be served at Walton Plaza within 24 hours. Also read: Walton wins ICMAB Best Corporate Award

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) has approved a number of proposals including import of a total of 140,000 metric tons (MT) of fertilizer  and procurement of 6 complete container scanner systems for custom houses. The committee in a virtual meeting on Wednesday, with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair, gave the nod to the proposals. As per a proposal placed by the Internal Resources Division of the Finance Ministry, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) will procure the six complete sets of container scanner systems for different custom houses from Nuctech Company Ltd. at a cost of Tk 327.01 crore. It also approved a proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture’s to import 50,000 MT of Muriate of Potash (MOP) from Canadian Commercial Corporation under a state-level contract at a cost of Tk 414.13 crore. The Ministry of Industries’ three separate proposals received the nod of the committee for the import of 90,000 MT of urea fertilizer by the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC). Read: Control room opens for monitoring fertilizer situation Of these, BCIC will import 30,000 MT of bulk granular urea from Fertiglobe Distribution Limited, the UAE, at a cost of Tk 188.93 crore while the same quantity of bulk granular urea will be imported from Muntajat, Qatar at the same cost. The BCIC will procure another 30,000 MT of bagged granular urea from Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company Limited (Kafco) at a cost of Tk 185.12 crore.

The government will import 300,000 metric tons of diesel (gas oil), 75,000 MTs of Jet-A-1 fuel, 33.60 lakh MMBtu LNG and 60,000 MTs of fertilizer to meet the domestic requirements. Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase (CCPP) in a virtual meeting on Wednesday approved different proposals in this regard. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the meeting while its members attended it. As per the proposals, the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will import 300,000 MT of diesel from PT. Bumi Siak Pusaku Zapin, Indonesia, at a cost of Tk 3,274.32 crore and 75,000 MT of Jet-A-1 fuel from Unipec Singapore Pte Ltd at Tk 780.06 crore. State-owned Petrobangla will import 33.60 lakh MMBtu of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Vitol Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore, at a cost of Tk 991.76 crore as each MMBtu will cost US$29.25. READ: Govt has no plan to increase diesel subsidy for farmers: Razzaque The Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) will import 30,000 MTs of TSP fertilizer from OCP, S.A Morocco, at Tk 259.39 crore while the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) will import 30,000 MTs of Bulk granular urea fertilizer from Muntajat, Qatar, at Tk 240.42 crore. The committee approved a proposal of the Department of Immigration and Passport to extend the cost of the e-passport project by Tk 39.93 crore to import 3 million e-passport booklets instead of conventional booklets from Veridos GmbH.

The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase at a virtual meeting on Wednesday approved two separate proposals to procure 60,000 metric tons (MTs) of fertilizers. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the meeting while members of the committee attended it. As per the proposals, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) under the Ministry of Agriculture will import 30,000 MTs of TSP fertilizer from OCP, SA of Morocco at a cost of Tk 182.06 crore while the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) under Ministry of Industries will also procure 30,000 MTs of bagged granular urea fertilizer from Karnaphuli Fertiliser Limited (Kafco) at a cost of Tk 172.15 crore. The BCIC will also procure 25,000 MTs of Rock Phosphate for state-owned Chattagram TSP Complex Limited. READ: Cabinet purchase body clears procurement of huge wheat, fertiliser Agro Industrial Input, Dhaka will supply the rock phosphate from Wilson International Trading Pvt Ltd, Singspore at a cost of Tk 78.52 crore. A proposal of the Local Government Engineering Depart (LGED) received the nod of the Cabinet body to appoint the Joint Venture of (1) DOHWA Engineering Co. Ltd., Korea and (2) Development Design Consultants Ltd. Bangladesh as a consultant for its “Western Economic Corridor & Regional Enhancement Program (WeCARE) Phase-1” at a cost of Tk 59.74 crore.

The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase has approved 16 proposals, including the setting up of a 42.5 MW waste-to-energy plant and four solar power plants with the total capacity of 181 MW.   The approval came from a virtual meeting of the committee held on Wednesday with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair. As per the approvals, Canves Environmental Investment Company Ltd, China, will set up the 42.5 MW waste-to-energy project at Kaultia,  Gazipur from where state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will purchase electricity under a contract for over a period of 25 years at US21.50 Cents, equivalent to Tk 17.20, per kilowatt hour (peach unit). READ: Cabinet body approves proposal for 30 oxygen plants The BPDB will have to spend Tk 14,408 crore to buy the power during the contract period. Another three private companies will set up three separate solar parks at three places. The BPDB will buy electricity from each of the projects at a tariff of US 10.60 cents, equivalent to Tk 8.48, considering US dollar rate at Tk 80, over a contract period of 20 years. Of the projects, Bangladesh-China Renewable Energy Company (Pvt) Limited will set up a 60 MW grid-tied solar park at Suzanagar Upazila, Pabna, and a 68MW solar park at Sirajganj Sadar upazila while Cyclect Energy Pte. Ltd, Singapore will set up a 50MW solar park at Jibonnagar,  Chuadanga. The BPDB will have to spend Tk 1649.12 crore to buy electricity from the Suzanagar project, 1,798.48 crore from Sirajganj project and 13,22.40 crore from Jibonnagar project for buying electricity during the contract period. The Western Renewable Energy Pvt. Ltd., will set up a 3MW solar-battery-diesel run hybrid power plant at Monpura upazila, Bhola from where the BPDB will buy electricity at Tk 21.25 per kilowatt hour over a period of 20 years. It will have to spend Tk 459 crore to purchase electricity from the plant over the contract period.   The CCPP approved three separate proposals for the import of 90,000 metric tons (MT) of urea fertilizer and 30,000 MT of phosphoric acid by Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), and another three separate proposals for the import of 90,000 MT of MOP fertilizer by Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC). READ: Cabinet committee approves 4 proposals, including LNG import Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved in principle a proposal to implement the 'Dhaka East-West Elevated Expressway' project under the public private partnership. The project cost was estimated at Tk 16,000 crore. It will connect the Dhaka-Aricha highway to Dhaka-Chittagong highway via Savar and Sonargaon, Narayanganj.