Mohammad Suman

The ringing sound of hundreds of sewing machines floats through Khalifa Patti in Chattogram every year before Eid-ul-Fitr. At least eight to ten people are hard at work round the clock in every shop of the market.

Despite record imports of soybean oil in the first quarter, consumers are having to pay an additional Tk 36-38 for every litre of non-bottled soybean oil over the price set by the government.

Between August 2018 and September 2020, Dhaka-based Mamun Enterprise has drawn over Tk 6.2 crore in incentives against agro exports.

Every day at the port city’s CRB intersection, around 300 people gather to break their fast. Most of these people belong to the lower-income

Three Dhaka-based buying houses were found to have tried to launder Tk 6.9 crore through mis-declaration, according to the Chattogram Custom House.

The prices of loose soybean and palm oil have gone up by Tk 150-200 per maund at Chattogram’s Khatunganj wholesale market overnight for a supply crisis although the importers maintain there is no shortage at their end.

Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) has identified an importer and forwarding (C&F) agent involved in importing a BMW car though Chattogram Port by submitting fake documents in 2010.

A probe report on the breach of NBR server that saw the release of 11 import consignments last year has raised more questions than it answered.

The prices of edible oil have gone up at the wholesale level yesterday despite the 30 percent tax exemption at the import and production stages.

The supply order, crucial for dealership of edible oils, has turned out to be a key tool being used to inflate the prices at the country’s biggest trade hub in Chattogram.

A section of traders is cashing in on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war to hike  prices of essentials that were already becoming costlier, market  insiders said.  

Pitambar Shah, a Chattogram based herbal medicine and spice shop, has survived with its old business model, despite the huge changes in technology and pharmaceutical industry in the last 180 years.

Like clockwork, the prices of Ramadan essentials like edible oil, chickpea, dried pea, date and sugar have started to spiral in the lead-up to the holy month despite higher imports.

An expert team yesterday started the process of shipping 500 tonnes of Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane, a banned toxic pesticide, to France for destruction.

Custom House, Chattogram yesterday handed over three vehicles, two BMWs and one Toyota, which were brought to the Chattogram port duty-free under a United Nations convention and now auctioned off for Tk 1.45 crore.

Tania Jasmine, the proprietor of a modest beauty salon in Chattogram’s Rangunia upazila, and her husband own just one car. But the National Board of Revenue’s database shows she owns a mindboggling 103 vehicles -- an alarming record for anyone to have.

Imagine a ground that helped create the prodigies of the country’s cricket -- names like Akram Khan, Minhajul Abedin Nannu, Tamim Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed and others associated with it -- remaining occupied in any and every activity other than sports for most of the year.

Chattogram Customs House has seized a consignment on charges of laundering Tk 1.6 crore by exporting 22 times more goods than the declaration.

Chattogram Customs House has seized a consignment on charges of laundering Tk 1.6 crore by exporting 22 times more goods than the declaration.

The Customs House Chattogram (CHC) and the VAT Intelligence have already conducted several investigations to find the destination of fake cigarette band rolls that dodged the eyes of authorities.