Surplus fund comes as economic relief- news in bd

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Bangladesh registered a current account balance surplus of over $2.8 billion in the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal (2012-13).

This is seen as a comfortable zone for the country with no need to borrow money for regular transactions.

In case of debts, a government has to borrow money (from banks, private sectors or abroad) and repay.

During the same period last year there was a debt of $120 million. The account includes regular export-import and other earnings and expenditures.

Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Research Director Zaid Bakht put the surplus to be an outcome of a good inflow of remittance and reduced trade deficit.

“It is mainly due to the positive inflow of remittance. It seems, the flow will sustain for the remaining three months (of the current fiscal).”

The apex bank’s balance sheet shows a $4.86 billion deficit in trading of goods in the first nine months (of the current fiscal). During the same period last year, the deficit was $6.75 billion.

This year, the deficit is almost 28 percent lower.

Zaid Bakht said, besides savings from imports, export expenditures came down too.

According to the balance sheet (FOB-based), export revenue gained 9.5 percent in the first nine months of the current fiscal compared to the figures in the last fiscal.

During this time (current year), over $19.35 billion was earned as export revenues and $24.22 billion as import expenditure – revenue gained by 9 percent and expenditures reduced by one percent compared to the same period last fiscal year.

However, the deficit in the services sector increased from over $2.19 billion in the first nine months of the previous fiscal to $2.34 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal year.

The services sector deficit is calculated on the basis of insurance, travel and other related fields.

The apex bank said of over $11.02 billion coming in as remittance from July-March in the 2012-13 fiscal. Last year, during the same period, the amount was over $9.44 billion.

Calculating all, there is a $1.57 billion surplus in these nine months. Last year (in the nine months), the excess amounted to $779 million.

Upon analysis, it shows that an increase in foreign aid and investment made a positive impact on the economic health of the government.

During these nine months in the current fiscal, the country received $1.05 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI). During the same nine months in the previous fiscal, the amount was $198 million.

Simultaneously, investment (portfolio investment) in the capital market amounted to $180 million – which was $198 million in the last fiscal.

Overall, the surplus in the current fiscal amounted to over $3.94 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal. In the last fiscal, there was a debt of $419 million.

Savar victims receive assistance- news in bd

The Prime Minister on Thursday handed out cheques to the families of 100 garment workers who died in the Rana Plaza collapse on April 24.

The Prime Minister distributed the cheques among the family members of 100 victims in her office.

Each family gets Taka two lakh, PM's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad said.

In her brief speech on the occasion, the Prime Minister said her government would continue efforts to support the families of the Savar victims.

"I have no word to console the bereaved families. But we will continue our efforts to help them and ease their economic hardship caused by loss of earning family members," the prime minister said.

She said the government has sucessfully rescued those trapped in the building collapse. "We could save lives of around 2500 people though we could not rescue all alive."

Sheikh Hasina said relatives of the bodies which could not be identified would also be given financial assistance after the DNA tests confirmed the deaths..

She said today's assistance was the beginning and more support like housing would be provided to them in future.

Later, a team of power sector headed by PM's Advisor on Energy Affairs Dr Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury donated their one-day salary to the Prime Minister's Relief and Welfare Fund. State minister for Power Enamul Haque and Power Secretary Monwar Islam were present at that time.

BNP to attend Parliament- news in bd

After 83 days of absence, BNP Standing Committee member Moudud Ahmed on Friday said his party was willing to attend the forthcoming parliament sessions.

“We will attend for the sake of people and our needs. But for how many days we will attend the session will depend on the government,” he said.

The Awami League has made Parliament non-functional, Moudud alleged. “Pro-people discussions are not allowed there.”

The budget session, beginning on Jun 3, is the last under the tenure of current government. The BNP will have to join the session if its MPs want to retain their membership.

Under current regulations, parliament memberships are stripped after 90 days of absence at a stretch.

BNP last attended Parliament on Mar 18, the twelfth session, after boycotting 77 consecutive days of proceedings.

The last Parliament session was adjourned sine die on Apr 30 amidst empty opposition benches.

“The opposition are not allowed to speak in parliament. Our leader is slated there. How can we stay if such things won’t happen again?”

“That is why it is up to the behaviour of the government how many days we can stay in the House.”

1 million evacuated, 8 districts without power- news in bd

At least 1 million people living in the coastal areas of Bangladesh have been evacuated to safety as a precaution against Mahasen.

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Power supply in eight districts has been suspended as a preventive measure even before the storm surges.

Rafiqul Islam a control room official for National Disaster Response Coordination Centre (NDRCC) said, almost 1 million people from 15 coastal districts have been moved to safe shelters.

Altogether 9, 66,622 people have been evacuated in these districts.

District wise break up are as follows: Chittagong district 2,83,000, Cox’s Bazar 1,97,577, Noakhali 24,500, Feni 4,000, Laxmipur 4,643, Khulna 40,250, Saatkhira 27,530, Bagerhat 1,10,000, Barisal 3,250, Pirozpur 6,700, Jaholokathi 4,000, Patuakhali 1,00,932, Borguna 64,500, Bhola 29,300 and Chandpur 4,040.

The cyclone with gushing winds upto 90 kmph hit Patualkhali’s Khepupara at around 9am on Thursday, said the Meteorology Department.

Two people were killed in Bhola and Borguna on Wednesday night in heavy storm and rapid winds that swept through the areas before the arrival of Mahasen.

Rafiqul Islam said, “We cannot say how many people have been killed in the cyclone since there is no news of this from district administrations”.

Meanwhile, eight coastal districts are without electricity supply as uprooted trees and broke branches fell on the power lines.

Bangladesh Power Development Board officials said the decision to turn off power in these area was taken as a precautionary measures against Mahasen. The eight districts are- Cox’s Bazaar, Bhola, Patuakhali, Noakhali, Laxmipur, Jhalokathi, Bagerhaat and Borguna.

Babu Nagari on 22-day fresh remand- news in bd

A Dhaka court has placed Hifazat-e Islam Secretary General Junaid Babu Nagari on a 22-day police remand in a murder case and two more cases filed over the May 5 mayhem.

Metropolitan Magistrate Mostafizur Rahman heard a plea from the Motijheel police for a 26-day fresh remand in the three cases on completion of his nine-day remand in police custody in the murder case filed with the Rajagbagh Police Station.

The court allowed the police to grill Nagari, a teacher at Darul Ulum Muinul Alam Madrasa at Hathazari in Chittagong, for four days in the murder case and nine days each in the two other cases filed for explosion of crude bombs and obstructing the law enforcers from performing their duties.

The court also turned down the Hifazat leader’s bail petition in all the three cases.

Nagari was arrested in the city’s Dhakeshwari National Temple area on May 6 night hours after Hifazat chief Shah Ahmad Shafi left Dhaka for Chittagong to avoid arrest.
Thousands of his followers earlier unleashed deadly violence in downtown Dhaka on the previous day, causing widespread damage.

The unruly Hifazat supporters, instigated and bolstered by activists of the Jamaat-e Islami and its student affiliate Islami Chhatra Shibir, vandalised and set fire to police outposts, hundreds of shops, including dozens of religious book shops, and makeshift vending stalls on footpaths around Paltan, Gulistan, Bijoy Nagar, Baitul Mukarram and Bangabandhu National Stadium markets during the mayhem.

A few thousand shops, including those selling jewellery, electronic goods and furniture, were also looted.

Mumbai finish unbeaten at home.

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Mumbai Indians kept their unbeaten home record intact in the IPL after securing a 14-run win over Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.

Mumbai have 22 points from 15 games but they piped Chennai Super Kings to the top of the table by better run-rate.

Put into bat, Mumbai lost eight wickets before setting a 167-run target to Rajasthan. Their opponents responded with 152 for seven in their 20 stipulated overs.

Rajasthan got off to the worst possible start -- losing four wickets in the first five overs for 28 runs.

Stuart Binny (37) and Brad Hodge (39) added 56 runs for the seventh wicket after they were reduced to 58-5 within the first 10 overs.

Earlier, Aditya Tare, who replaced Sachin Tendulkar, scored 59 off 37 deliveries for Mumbai hitting a total of nine boundaries including a six.

U.S. may strip Bangladesh of tariff breaks- news in bd

DHAKA: The Obama administration may strip Bangladesh of import breaks following deadly accidents in the country’s textile industry, another sign of the pressure building on the southeast Asian nation to improve labor conditions, USA-based newspaper The Washington Post reported on Friday.

The move was prompted partly by a fire late last year that killed 112 people and gained momentum after the recent factory collapse that claimed more than 1,100 lives.

Business, labor and advocacy groups are all struggling over how to respond to the April 24 incident — the worst-ever in the textile industry but an event that could produce meaningful change in a nation on its way to becoming the world’s largest garment exporter.

A group of mostly European nations has signed on to a binding inspection program. U.S. firms such as Wal-Mart have declined, but political backlash may be building. On Thursday, a group of senators wrote to major U.S. retailers urging them to reconsider, and the Obama administration is also debating how to get American firms more constructively engaged.

Such agencies as the Department of Labor and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, meanwhile, are stepping up their efforts. Labor officials have agreed to fund a program to improve the Bangladeshi government’s currently weak — and some say corruption-ridden — factory inspection system. USTR, meanwhile, is moving forward with plans to exclude Bangladesh from import tax breaks given to goods from developing countries.

U.S. officials said the decision was made last fall to begin pressuring Bangladesh for improvement in its labor conditions, and the process intensified after the recent incidents.

Requests by labor groups to exclude Bangladesh from tariff breaks have been pending for several years, but USTR said in documents published in the federal register that “the lack of progress by the government of Bangladesh in addressing worker rights issues . . . warrants consideration of possible withdrawal” of benefits.

That has gotten the government’s attention. A delegation of top Bangladeshi officials is in Washington this week lobbying to retain the tariff breaks and to convince U.S. leaders in USTR, Labor and the State Department that they are serious about overhauling local labor laws, prosecuting crimes against labor leaders and making other long-sought changes.

“We reached the conclusion that things were not moving forward, and we needed to do something dramatic,” said a U.S. trade official, who was not authorized to speak for the record.

The November fire and last month’s collapse of the Rana Plaza textile center brought into sharp relief one of the core moral questions of globalization: What obligation do the nations that benefit from low-cost goods made in places like Bangladesh have to ensure a safe environment and basic rights for workers? It also highlights the challenge of policing a global economy in which developing nations now absorb massive outside investment each year and corporations rely on ever-more diffuse and distant supply chains to source their goods.