Kamal sets sights on raising taxpayers’ number to 1 crore

The government will bring all eligible taxpayers under the tax net, says Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
13 June 2019, 18:18 PM

60,000 flats to be built under PPP

Bangladesh government has planned to build 60 thousand flats under the public-private partnership (PPP) system in Purbachal, which is a new city of Dhaka.
13 June 2019, 18:06 PM

Growth-friendly, albeit unrealistic

The new budget is growth-friendly and has set ambitious goals but shied away from addressing the key challenges confronting the economy, said a number of economists in their immediate reactions.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Silent on rising healthcare cost

The health budget proposed yesterday did not address the issue of rising expenditure of healthcare in the country that forces some four to five million people into poverty every year, analysts said.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Mega but slow

In 2010, the government decided to construct a 128-kilometre (km) metre gauge rail track to link Chattogram with tourist town Cox’s Bazar at a cost of Tk 1,852.35 crore.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Extra tax on stock dividend

Tax-free dividend income raised to Tk 50,000 from Tk 25,000; ​15% additional tax imposed on retained earnings over 50% of paid-up capital
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Challenge lies in implementation

A look at the revised budget for the outgoing financial year and its state of implementation up to the month of March reconfirm the main weakness of our financial management, namely, the persistently low revenue mobilisation that routinely misses its target.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Black money lives on

Walking back on its election pledge to eradicate black money, the government in its first budget of the current tenure has once again kept the scope for whitening money.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Smartphone import to be costlier

Imported smartphones are scheduled to turn much costlier as the government has proposed increasing supplementary duty from 10 percent to 25 percent.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Needle for middle class

Afsana Rahman’s maternity leave is about to end, and so baby formula milk will soon have to substitute breast milk for her second child. As she and her husband are both job holders with fixed income, she now has to adjust her monthly expenditures to make ends
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Gloom of growers not going away

Gani Mia is a farmer with no land of his own. He grows paddy, jute and other crops in others’ fields. His story, though fictitious, is in school textbooks and etched in the minds of many. It stands true for a large number of the country’s farmers, especially the marginal ones.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

BUDGET SPEECH: PM helps out ailing Kamal

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday presented parts of the national budget as Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal fell sick halfway through his speech.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

AL hails budget; BNP, CPB not so kind

The ruling Awami League yesterday termed the proposed national budget “pro-people” and “realistic” but the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) were critical.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Vehicle ownership a bigger burden

In a stark contrast to the past few years, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal proposed 10 percent supplementary duty on issuance or renewal of all kinds of vehicle reg-istration, route permit, fitness certificates and ownership certificate—with exemptions for
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Allocation of Total Government Expenditure by Sectors FY 2019-20

Allocation of Total Government Expenditure by Sectors FY 2019-20
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Safety for 16 lakh more

In a push to widen the social safety net, the government decided to include all registered differently abled people, and more marginalised and vulnerable ones under its protection.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Mobile phone calls may get costlier

Mobile phone services are likely to become costlier from today due to increased taxes. The National Board of Revenue sent a regulatory order to the mobile carries to increase the supplementary duty (SD) to 10 percent from 5 from midnight yesterday.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Businesses happy, suggest tweaks

Businesses yesterday welcomed the budget as the government proposed some new initiatives which would aid growth, give rise to new entrepreneurs and enable more people to enjoy benefits of social safety net programmes.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

New VAT Regime New concern for consumers

Shifting from its initial plan to slap a uniform rate, the government has finally proposed four rates of Value Added Tax to please businesspeople and take them on board to implement the new VAT law from the next fiscal year.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Deficit financing to be expensive

The government has resorted to deficit financing, largely through bank borrowing and sale of high-cost savings certificates, increasing the interest payment burden on its shoulders and fuelling inflation.
13 June 2019, 18:00 PM