Sohel Parvez

Inflation rose to 6.44 per cent in October, the highest in at least five years, driven by a sharp increase in the price of food items, official figures showed yesterday.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to develop an online tax return filing system with its own resources so that taxpayers can file their annual income statements easily.

Repeated floods and unfavourable weather are likely to trigger a drop in yield of Aman rice, the second-biggest crop in Bangladesh after Boro, a worrying prospect amid the rising price of the cereal.

The government plans to provide incentives to encourage community cultivation so that farmers plant their crops in a synchronised manner and ensure simultaneous harvests.

The government yesterday announced to buy paddy and rice at prices that are below the production cost, raising doubts whether it would be able to attain the procurement target of the staple to build an adequate public stock.

The rapid expansion of electric three-wheelers, popularly known as easy bike, has opened up huge business opportunities for battery manufacturers and traders in Bangladesh.

With the prices of potato having shot up in the past few weeks, farmers who were preparing for the upcoming growing season are about to face a new reality.

Tax collection jumped in September as the country’s businesses and economic activities continued to pick up despite all the uncertainty caused by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Individual taxpayers will have to submit their income tax returns at tax offices this year as the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided against holding its annual tax fair to avoid mass gatherings and curb the risk of the spread of coronavirus, said officials.

Fruit drinks and wafer biscuits can no longer be marketed or sold without the certification from the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), according to a government notification.

The debate over Bangladesh’s GDP growth forecasts is back again. There is wide variation in the projections made by the multilateral development agencies for the current fiscal year amid deep uncertainties about the near-term trajectory of the global economy as the pandemic is still raging.

Residents in Dhaka are quite familiar with informal buyers of obsolete computers, laptops, batteries of Instant Power Supply and other malfunctioned home appliances.

The government has prohibited sale and distribution of batteries used in solar home systems (SHS) that have not been certified by the Bangladesh Standards & Testing Institution (BSTI).

The National Board of Revenue has opened an investigation to find out whether e-commerce platform Evaly has dodged income tax, according to a senior official of the NBR.

For the last four days, Mohammed Abul Hossain, a vegetable exporter, has been trying to send his consignments to England but each of his attempts ended in failure as two scanners solely used for Europe-bound cargoes are out of order at Hazrat Shahjahal International Airport (HSIA).

GPH Ispat, one of the country’s leading steel makers, is going to export billet to China in what will be the biggest-ever outgoing shipment of raw materials by any Bangladeshi company.

Over the first nine days of the current month, importers brought more than 2,500 tonnes of onion from four countries -- Myanmar, China, Pakistan and Turkey.

Rainfall in Bangladesh was 9 per cent higher than average this year, leading to repeated floods that not only damaged a large number of crops, but also affected cultivation in general with vegetables being no exception.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the trade war between China and the US have brought to the fore an important issue, that dependence on a single country for sourcing goods is risky.

The government is finally easing its grip on the shrimp industry as local farmers can now cultivate vannamei shrimp within the country following years of dithering by the concerned authorities to grant permission.