Great news for Bangladesh on the year of the golden jubilee. Bangladesh has been promoted to a developing country from an underdeveloped country. After 45 years of being a Least Developed Country (LDC), the UN has updated its status.

A mammoth source of income for the National Board of Revenue is now source tax on savings instruments. In the last fiscal year, the government has earned around Tk 3,000 crore from taxing savings tools, the majority of which comes from middle class citizens and small investors.

Bangladesh had surpassed India, the subcontinental superpower, in terms of per capita GDP for the first time back in 2020. This year, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that Bangladesh will remain ahead of India in terms of GDP per capita for the next 5 years, i.e. till 2026. A report on Bangladesh’s economic progress was published in The Daily Star. Keep an eye on Star News+ for a roundup.

The E-commerce industry has grown exponentially in the last few years. But in the last few months, information of irregularities in the industry has come to light. Allegedly, e-commerce companies have funneled several crores from customers with alluring advertisements and massive discounts.

Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have established a number of businesses overseas. Six more companies will be granted licenses to start new businesses. In 2014, the Bangladesh Bank began enabling local businesses to invest offshore.

Everything from fish, meat, clothing, medicine, car, flat is available on various E-commerce websites, social media groups and pages. The E-commerce business is crossing the Tk 1,000 crore threshold. But many of these businesses are scamming people by offering unrealistic profit margins.

Remittance flow is reducing. It was $ 1.25 billion lower in the first three months of the current fiscal year, compared to the same period of last year. Are the illegal channels of money transfer re-emerging? What are the thoughts of economists on this?

Economic jargon, political consolidations fail to give solace to the struggling masses to hold on to a normal life amid the escalating prices of almost all commodity goods.

On November 4, the price of diesel and kerosene rose by 15 tk per litre. The decision came at a time when the economy of the country is struggling to recover from the severe depression caused by the pandemic.

On Sunday, 12 trucks -- waiting in a parking lot near Petrapole Port -- were burnt to the ground after a fire broke out. These trucks were carrying cotton bound for Bangladesh. According to local sources, no one got injured in the incident.

The government raised the prices of kerosene and diesel by Tk 15 a litre to Tk 80 on November 4. And at the same time it has increased the price of 12-kg cylinder of LP gas by Tk 54 to Tk 1,313. The prices have been hiked at a time when the general mass have been struggling to recover from the pandemic induced economic downfall. In today’s Star Connects, Khondoker Md Shoyeb along with M Tamim, professor of the petroleum engineering department and dean of engineering of Buet, and Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of CPD, tries to find out why the government has to increase the prices of kerosene and diesel and what could be done other than rising the prices now.

Decreased interest rates in banks has made saving accounts more attractive to the masses. Many middle class and lower middle class families even rely on saving accounts to sustain their livelihood. 

In 1995, maize cultivation began in the abandoned char areas of Lalmonirhat, under the supervision of Department of Agricultural Extension. Today, the number of maize farmers there has grown from 200 to over 20,000. App. 3,35,000 metric tonnes of maize was produced in the district in 2021. Although maize cultivation has brought fortune for the farmers, there are complaints about its trade. The farmers would have gotten better prices if there were maize processing and storage facilities.

According to the government, Bangladesh is now self-sufficient in food production, especially in rice production. But we still have to rely on imports in order to meet the nutritional demands of our population. What does self-sufficiency mean then?

BMW, Mercedes Benz, Ford, Land Rover, Lexus, Mitsubishi, Toyota and many more luxurious cars are on auction in Chittagong Port’s auction this time around. The auction will be open for the public both online and through several tender boxes around the country coming Wednesday and Thursday.

During the coronavirus induced lockdown, Facebook based businesses drew more customers. But recently, complaints of fraud in many of these social media businesses have not only skyrocketed, it has also seen an increase in delivery of wrong and substandard products. As a result, customers are now losing faith in this business model as a whole.

Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) is now proving to be inadequate in handling current export traffic -- because of laxity in providing functional Explosive Detective Systems. Exporters are worried that this can cause delay in shipment, and ultimately substantial loss in foreign revenue.

For the last one year, share market indices have been on the rise. Since October 2020 till now the shares of 20 companies whose share prices have increased the most are either Z or B category shares or shares of companies whose production had been halted.

Prices of essentials are on the rise. The increase in the price of onion in India and price of oil in the international market has affected respective prices in Bangladesh as well. To that has been added the recent hike in LP gas and fuel prices.

Recently, NRB Bank bought shares at high prices and sold them at a lower price. Although the bank incurred losses because of this, others benefited through the unethical trading practice that put depositors’ money at risk. How did this kind of irregularity happen in an institution like a bank?