Sohel Parvez

The apprehension of a potential lockdown to rein in the coronavirus spread has led to the stockpiling of some essential commodities but businesses said there was nothing to be worried about.

It’s all colourful.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is set to remove all forms of import duties and taxes to encourage quick import of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), raw materials used in hand sanitisers, coronavirus testing kits and re-agents, said finance ministry officials yesterday.

Perhaps the most sought items today are hand sanitisers and alcohol-based hand rubs, once rarely used, as people scramble to protect themselves from the lethal coronavirus.

The coronavirus pandemic has fuelled the demand for tissues globally and Bangladesh, where new cases of contagion are being identified, is not an exception.

Exports of fresh produce from Bangladesh have been hit in the wake of flight restrictions imposed by several Middle Eastern countries to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, exporters said yesterday.

With Indian onion starting to reenter Bangladesh after a six-month export ban, two government wings are up for discouraging the arrival of the tuber to protect local growers from price slumps amidst ongoing harvests.

Bus operators are bracing for bumpy roads ahead in the wake of India’s ban on entry of foreign nationals until April 15 and people avoiding travel within the country over apprehensions centring the coronavirus outbreak.

The government is putting its best foot forward to help farmers buy agricultural machinery with subsidy ahead of the next boro season so that the growers can bring down their production costs, said officials of the agriculture ministry.

Technology can change the world, it is often said. And the lives of the country’s 1.5 crore farm families, who are often shorn of fair prices, are about to change with the government move to purchase paddy from them by way of a mobile application.

The food procurement office, for the first time since 1996, has bought the highest amount of aman paddy and achieved its target of buying six lakh tonnes of the grain grown in the monsoon.

It has been more than two months since Evana Nasrin has opened an outlet named Mokam in a shopping centre in Dhanmondi.

The state coffer’s receipts from the banking sector, which accounts for about one-third of the National Board of Revenue’s Large Taxpayers Unit’s collections, are likely fall in the wake of interest rate caps on loans and deposits, said taxmen and bankers.

India finally issued a notification yesterday announcing the lifting of a five-month-old ban on onion export with effect from March 15.

ACI Agrolink, a subsidiary of Advanced Chemical Industries (ACI), has set foot in shrimp processing to make a breakthrough in the global seafood market and take the sector out of troubled waters.

Onion prices have slumped amid increasing supply and fears of flooding of the bulb after India decided to lift the ban on export -- a development that has provided relief to consumers but raised concerns for farmers.

The National Board of Revenue plans to allow global social media giants to secure direct VAT registration without opening local offices as part of its move to bring them under the tax network.

Imports from China slumped 21 per cent year-on-year in volume in the one and a half months to February 15 amid supply disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, official data showed.

A section of well-off people have apparently made a mad dash for post office accounts right after the government tightened rules on investment in high interest-bearing national savings certificates.

Bicycle has been the preferred mode of transport for Kazi Rokibul Haque for a good few years now.