United News of Bangladesh

Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) has imposed a ban on transactions with nine private banks, including six affiliated with Chattogram-based business group S Alam Group, prohibiting them from accepting pay orders, cheques and bank guarantees. The shipping agents have not been accepting pay orders from these nine private banks, including the six owned by S Alam Group for last 15 days. The CPA has now officially extended this ban including a prohibition on using cheques or bank guarantees for port services and related activities. On Thursday, an office order, signed by the port's Chief Financial and Accounting Officer Mohammad Abdus Shakur, was sent to all departments of the organization. Following the directive, the banks involved with port-related transactions or tenders will no longer be able to provide pay orders or cheques. The banks are Islami Bank, First Security Islami Bank, Global Islami Bank, Union Bank, Bangladesh Commerce Bank, Social Islami Bank, Padma Bank, National Bank, and ICB Islami Bank. The first six are part of the S Alam Group. Following the fall of Sheikh Hasina-led government recently, the Bangladesh Bank is reforming the boards of these banks. It was learned that the banks have been experiencing severe deficits in their current accounts and liquidity shortages. Previously, the central bank provided cash support to address liquidity issues, but due to ongoing deficits, this support has been withdrawn. As a precautionary measure, the CPA has directed all departments to avoid accepting pay orders and cheques from these banks to prevent any operational disruptions. CPA Secretary Md. Omar Faruk said in general pay orders are required as a guarantee during the tender submission process and bank guarantees are used for contracting with construction firms. This precautionary measure has been implemented to ensure that the port does not face any issues with the redemption of these financial instruments, he added.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) added Tk 6,749 crore to its market capitalization last week, even as the prices of many shares and units declined. According to the latest financial data, DSE’s market capital stood at Tk 6,92,831 crore at the start of trading on Sunday, the first working day of the week. By the close of the final trading session, market capital had increased to Tk 6,99,581 crore, marking a Tk 6,749 crore rise over the week. Bangladesh Bank deposits record Tk 15,100 crore to treasury from FY 2023-24 net profit Despite the overall drop in share prices, the DSE's main index, DSEX, gained 104 points, closing the week at 5,804 points. Additionally, the DSE Shariah index increased by 22 points to 1,241, and the DSE-30 index rose by 34 points to 2,124. A total of 397 firms participated in share and unit trading throughout the week. Of these, 293 saw their share and unit prices rise, 86 experienced declines, and 18 remained unchanged.

Petrobangla is going to extend the submission date of the international offshore block bidding round by three months to get a better response. "We have moved to extend the bid submission time by 3 more months", Petrobangla Chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker said last week. He also informed reporters that so far, 7 international companies purchased the bid documents showing keen interest to invest in oil and gas exploration in the country's maritime area in the Bay of Bengal. Sources said the multinational oil and gas companies, which purchased the bids, include US companies ExxonMobil and Chevron, Malaysia's Petronas, Norway and France's joint venture TGS and Schlumberger, Japan's Inpex Corporation and Jogmac, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Italy's Eni SPA, Singapore's Chris Energy and India's ONGC. Petrobangla, the oil, gas and mineral corporation, floated the offshore bidding on March 10 this year and set a September 9 deadline for submission of bids by the interested companies. Officials said now the bid submission date will be set anytime in December.  The tender, named “Oil and Natural Gas Exploration Under Bangladesh Offshore Bidding Round 2024”, was published in local newspapers and websites of concerned government entities including Bangladeshi missions abroad. As per the floated tender, a total of 24 offshore blocks—of which nine are shallow blocks and 15 deep sea blocks—are available for the bidding round. The nine shallow sea blocks are SS-01, 02, 03, 05, 06, 07, 08, 10 and 11, and 15 deep sea blocks are DS-08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22. The bidder, singly or in association with other companies, can bid for one or more blocks. Contracts will be signed with the successful bidders in line with the Bangladesh Offshore Model Production Sharing Contract 2023, said the tender. The features of the proposed contract include full repatriation of profit, no signature bonus or royalty, uncapped attractive gas price linked with international marker, oil price to be determined on the basis of the fair market value prevailing in South and Southeast Asia. It entails no duty for equipment and machinery imported for petroleum operations while contractor's corporate income tax liability will be borne by Petrobangla, and bank guarantee for performance of the minimum exploration program. There will be provision for assignment of interest and share-transfer and 100 percent cost recovery with a yearly cap of 75 percent. The contractor must have a mandatory work program consisting of 2D seismic survey and mandatory purchase of available 2D multi-client seismic data against bidded blocks to get relief from mandatory work obligations proportionately. They will have minimum work obligation in each of the exploration periods while biddable work program commitment over and above the mandatory program. There will be petroleum profit sharing on the basis of R-factor with biddable upper and lower limits and option to sell contractor's share of natural gas in the domestic market to a third party, at a negotiated price, subject to Petrobangla's right of first refusal. The bidder must ensure a carried stake of 10 percent for state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX) for both shallow and deep sea blocks. The bidders’ qualification criteria include — individual or in case of joint venture at least one member — offshore daily production of at least 15,000 barrels of oil or 150 mmsc of gas. Bidders must have at least one global experience (other than home country) in the oil and gas exploration and production. The Information Package will be available at a cost of US$ 300 or equivalent Bangladeshi taka to the interested bidders/companies. To enable companies to assess the geological prospects of the blocks on offer, promotional and data Packages are available on payment basis. Promotional packages contain bidding document, sample seismic sections, gravity, magnetic, geological maps. Companies are required to purchase the promotional package in order to qualify for bidding, said the tender.

Bangladesh Bank achieved a record profit in the fiscal year 2023-24, fueled by significant US dollar sales from reserves and a sharp rise in short-term lending to commercial banks. The central bank’s final balance sheet for the year reveals a total profit of Tk 40,000 crore, with a net or actual profit of Tk 15,100 crore. This marks a substantial increase from the previous fiscal year, when net profits stood at Tk 10,748 crore. Of this, Tk 10,652 crore was transferred to the government treasury. The surge in profits is largely attributed to Bangladesh Bank’s income from short-term loans provided to various banks, particularly through repos and special repos. Upward trend in remittance: Bangladesh receives over $2 billion in Aug Additionally, the bank capitalized on the sale of US dollars from its foreign exchange reserves, a move that bolstered its earnings. The financial statement was approved during a meeting of the Bangladesh Bank’s board of directors last Wednesday. At this meeting, it was also decided that central bank officials would receive a bonus equivalent to five and a half months' basic salary. In the last fiscal year, Bangladesh Bank extended a total of Tk 32.21 lakh crore in loans to commercial banks, surpassing the cumulative amount lent over the previous seven years. Moreover, the bank sold US $12.79 billion from its foreign exchange reserves to local banks throughout the fiscal year. Bangladesh Bank raises agricultural credit target to Tk 38000 cr Following all expenditures, Tk 15,100 crore from the net income was deposited into the government treasury, reflecting the central bank’s robust financial performance.

Bangladesh is showing an upward trend again in remittance sent by expatriates which exceeded US$ 2 billion in 28 days of August. According to Bangladesh Bank's updated report on remittance as of August 28, expatriate Bangladeshis sent $2.07 billion to the country through the formal channel. In the same period of August 2023, remittance inflow was $1.43 billion. Bangladesh receives $1.9 billion remittance in July Bangladesh witnessed the lowest remittance in the last 10 months in July 2024 amid the student movement. In July, the country's remittance was about $1.91 billion. It is to be noted, banks were closed from July 19 to 23 due to the situation caused by the students’ movement against discrimination, public and general holidays. Apart from this, broadband internet was off for 5 consecutive days and mobile internet was off for 10 days. Because of this, foreign transactions with the country's banks were almost stopped. Bangladesh forex reserves soar to $19.53bn boosted by remittance Bangladesh Bank has taken different steps to increase remittance to overcome the foreign exchange crisis and increase reserves. In the last few months, these measures have had a positive impact on expatriate income or remittance coming into the country.  

Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, the interim government’s adviser for Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources, has said that the private sector will be encouraged to participate in the energy sector, but only through competitive processes. “There are a lot of bad names in the energy sector, and businessmen should move forward to overcome such scandals,” the adviser said during a meeting with representatives of the Bangladesh Solar & Renewable Energy Association (BSREA) at the Ministry on Thursday. During the meeting, BSREA leaders raised several demands to remove various bottlenecks in the sector that hinder investment. In response, the adviser directed the ministry to form a committee to address these issues. The adviser underscored the need to expand beyond the traditional focus on solar energy within the renewable sector. "We have to move beyond the concept that renewable energy means only 'solar.' You need to explore new ideas and options for investment in the renewable energy sector," he stated. He also highlighted the importance of finding innovative technologies to develop sustainable solar cells and proposed exploring unconventional options like utilizing tea garden spaces for solar projects. Fouzul further advised exploring the potential of floating solar systems as an effective solution to overcome land scarcity issues in renewable energy projects. As the adviser for road transport, bridges, and railways, he also called for initiatives to modernize and increase the capacity of solar energy systems. The meeting was attended by Senior Secretary of the Power Division Md. Habibur Rahman, President of BSREA Md. Nurul Akhtar, Senior Vice President Mostafa Al Mahmud, and other senior officials from the Ministry and BSREA.

Bangladesh Bank on Thursday announced a new 'Agricultural  and Rural Credit' disbursement policy with the target of disbursing Tk 38,000 crore loan for the fiscal year 2024-25 to ensure food security in the country. The loan target is 8.57 percent higher than that of FY 2023-24. Against the target of Tk 35,000 crore set in the last financial year FY 2023-24, the banks distributed agricultural and rural loans of Tk 37,153,90 crore which is Tk 4,324.01 crore more from the 32,829.89 crore distributed in the previous fiscal year 2022-2023 or 13.17 percent more. The central bank Governor,  Dr Ahsan H Mansur, in a press conference at Jahangir Alam Conférence hall in the central bank headquarters unveiled the agricultural and rural credit disbursement policy for FY2024-25. The target for state owned and specialised banks has been set at Tk12615 crore, while foreign and private sector banks have been given  a target of Tk 25,385 crore. The governor said that considering the importance of adequate credit flow in the agricultural sector to achieve GDP growth through increasing agricultural production in the country and controlling inflation, the central bank has set a target of Tk 38,000 crore for agricultural and rural credit distribution in the current financial year. "In order to distribute adequate loans at low interest rates under the Agricultural and Rural Credit Policy, the local private banks are required to disburse at least 50 percent of the target through their own network and compulsorily 60 percent of the target to the crops and crops sector, 13 percent to the fisheries sector and 15 percent to the livestock sector," said Dr Mansur. Deputy Governors, head of different departments of the central bank, Managing Director (MD) and representatives from all banks were present.

Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) on Wednesday instructed banks to freeze accounts belonging to Salman F Rahman, along with those of his wife and son. Banks were also instructed to suspend transactions across these personal accounts for an initial period of 30 days, according to a letter from BFIU. The BFIU requested an update on the status of these accounts within five working days of the issuance of the letter. Salman, a prominent Bangladeshi businessman, former MP and adviser to the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, was arrested on August 13. One of the banks with substantial exposure to Salman's Beximco Group is Janata Bank. Salman's notorious legacy appears to have extended to his son, Ahmed Shayan Fazlur Rahman, who recently lost his directorship at IFIC Bank due to loan irregularities.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) will not tolerate any bid to create instability in the central bank-controlled financial institutions including the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM). The central bank does not want instability in the financial institutions in the name of removing discrimination, rather it will prefer resolving deprivation and frustration issues through the official channels, said central bank Governor Ahsan H. Mansur on the sidelines of a press conference on Wednesday. He said if discrimination happens in any financial institution, the deprived officials can write the issues to the head of the institutions. Some BIBM officials told UNB that some employees of BIBM recently tried to create unexpected situation to remove some officials. After the failure of such an attempt, a group of BIBM employees submitted their demands in writing to the Director General of the BIBM. For comment, UNB tried to contact BIBM DG Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman over phone and SMS, but he did not respond. BIBM is the national training, research, consultancy and education institute on banking and finance collectively owned by the banking sector of the country.

 Finance and Commerce Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed on Tuesday asked the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to expedite the export-import activities after proper verification of documents.   “We told them to release the items from the ports scrutinizing all the required documents,” he told reporters after meeting NBR officials at the NBR at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar during his maiden visit. He mentioned that the National Board of Revenue is an important organization for the government and they have a big role to flourish industries and trade in the country. “Their job is to collect revenue, the collection has to be maximum without giving any trouble to the taxpayers, but they have to follow the rules and regulations properly,” he said. The adviser also said that he asked the NBR to take effective measures for increasing the tax GDP ratio, which is below double digit right now. ”We can not advance by always taking loans from others,” he said. Responding to a question, NBR Chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan said that the NBR will take all necessary measures to attain the revenue target of Tk 480,000 crore in the running fiscal. “We will ensure that there will be no leakage and collect the revenue at the proper time. For that our revenue officials will work hard,” he said. He mentioned that the NBR will try to give its appropriate services at the quickest possible time. “We will give the businesses our full confidence to earn our revenue,” he said.