Speakers at a quarterly review meeting said that Rupali Bank Limited (RBL) has no liquidity crisis.

The Bank is ensuring quality services to its customers and has already gone much ahead of all other banks in the country, they said.

The state-owned bank is now busy creating business-friendly environment, such as launching new products, enhancing business and realizing classified loans, they added.

Alongside these improvements, there are also some other failures which need to be addressed with support from all officers and employees, they pointed out.

The meeting held at the Convention Hall Baitul View Tower in the city was titled as ‘Business Review Meeting-2012’ of State-owned Rupali Bank Limited.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 30th April 2012

Mohammad Abdul Mannan, Managing Director of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, left Dhaka on Saturday to attend an international conference on Islamic Microfinance as a specialised speaker.

He will attend the conference on special invitation from the president of Islami Development Bank (IDB) , says a press release on Sunday.

According to the release, he will address a session titled ‘Innovations and Challenges in Providing Sustainable and Shari’ah-compliant Microfinance’.

This IDB organised international conference on Islamic Microfinance will be held today (Monday) at Jeddah, KSA.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 30th April 2012

The size of foreign assistance in the next fiscal’s Annual Development Programme (ADP) is likely to be Tk 215 billion.

This allocation will be Tk 65 billion more than that of the current fiscal’s revised ADP and Tk 28.15 billion bigger than this year’s original ADP outlay, officials said.

The Finance Division in a recent letter to the Planning Ministry said the ADP outlay for the upcoming 2012-13 fiscal would be Tk 543 billion.

Of the total amount, spending in local currency was estimated at Tk 328 billion while project assistance (PA) will be Tk 215 billion, officials said.

Economic Relations Division (ERD) officials said earlier this month, they were asked to apprise the Finance Division of foreign aid demands of difference ministries.

In response, the ERD submitted a compiled demand of Tk 215.6 billion, which later saw a cut by Tk 600 million. The ERD held a series of meetings between April 16 and 19 to assess the project assistance demands and received demands for a total amount of Tk 198 billion. However, they are yet to receive demands from some agencies.

After aggregating all the demands, ERD will send a proposal to the Planning Ministry to finalise the draft of ADP allocations, officials added. The original ADP outlay was Tk 460 billion in the current fiscal. Of the amount, PA constituted Tk 186.85 billion or 41 percent of the total stipulated expenditure.

Later, it was downsized to Tk 410 billion in the revised ADP, where foreign assistance was Tk 150 billion.

UNB adds: The implementation progress of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) in the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal was 45 percent, the same rate achieved during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal (2010-11).

According to the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), the expenditure during the nine months was, however, Tk 206.17 billion, up Tk 31.07 billion compared to Tk 175.10 billion during the corresponding period of fiscal 2010-11.

Of the total expenditure, the share of the project assistance was Tk 61.29 billion (33 percent) as against Tk 5104 billion (33 percent) during the same period of the previous fiscal.

The share of the local funding was Tk 144.88 billion (53 percent).

About Tk 172.98 billion, 63 percent of the allocation, was released during the July-March period of fiscal 2011-12. The size of the revised ADP allocation in the current fiscal is Tk 410 billion while the original outlay was Tk 460 billion.

The IMED figures showed that the Statistics Division achieved the highest implementation rate of 223 percent while the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism posted the lowest implementation rate of 1 percent.

The utilisation rate of top 10 ministries and divisions during the nine-month period of 2011-12 fiscal were 54 percent or Tk 167.71 billion in expenditure.

Among the top ministries and divisions, the Local Government Division made the highest expenditure of Tk 53.33 billion (58 percent) followed by the Power Division Tk 46.92 billion (66 percent).

Primary and Mass Education Ministry’s progress was 67 percent (Tk 16.22 billion), while that of Education Ministry 47 percent (Tk 10.03 billion), Health and Family Welfare Ministry 101 percent (Tk 10.13 billion), Energy and Mineral Resources Division 42 percent (Tk 4.50 billion), Water Resources Ministry 42 percent (Tk 6.25 billion), Roads Division 44 percent (9.94 billion), Railways Division 37 percent (Tk 8.40 billion), and Bridge Division 9 percent (Tk 1.97 billion).

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 30th April 2012

Earnings by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) grew by 17.2 percent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, thanks to a strong drive to collect revenues from both the public and private sectors.

The tax administrator will have to collect Tk 30,000 crore in the next three months to meet the target for the entire fiscal year.

An NBR official said they hope to earn more than the required amount in the next three months to reach the goal.

He also said they collected Tk 500 crore more than the target in the first nine months.

According to NBR statistics, revenue earnings in the July-March period were Tk 62,261 crore against a target of Tk 61,857 crore.

The NBR official said they had a collection target of Tk 91,870 crore for the entire year.

But the "resource committee" of the finance ministry at a recent meeting chaired by Finance Minister AMA Muhith decided to reset the target in the revised budget.

The target for the entire year may be increased by Tk 500 crore-Tk 1,000 crore, said the official, asking not to be named.

The successes of the current year may encourage the NBR to set the next year's target at Tk 1,12,000 crore, 22 percent more than this year's estimated earnings.

In the next three months, revenue worth Tk 3,400 crore will come from Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation alone, he said.

Besides, there is a possibility of earning Tk 742 crore as SIM (subscriber identity module) tax from the mobile operators, the NBR official added.

He also said Alternative Dispute Resolution has been introduced recently to fast-track resolution of tax-related cases out of court, which will spin off revenue of another Tk 100 crore.

He said the NBR has intensified its tax collection drives and is not sparing even the public sector companies.

The official said stern action has been taken against state-owned mobile phone company Teletalk, compelling the operator to commit to pay its dues every month.

The tax administrator also froze the account of the state-run mobile operator as it failed to pay dues in time, said the official.

Besides, the NBR has formed two taskforces to speed up revenue collection. The taskforces have detected tax evasions by a good number of big companies. Revenue worth around Tk 2,000 crore may be realised from them, the official said.

He said, due to the steps they achieved big successes in realising income tax and local-level value added tax.

In the first nine months, growth in income tax was 25 percent and VAT at the local level increased by 20 percent. However, revenue earnings rose by only 10 percent at the import level.

The official said, both the government and the Bangladesh Bank have taken various steps to discourage import of unnecessary goods to ease pressure on the foreign currency reserve. As a result, growth in revenue earnings at the import level is somewhat lower, he added.

The official said the NBR may set an ambitious target in the next fiscal year also. Already the resource committee meeting has made a projection of revenue target for the next year.

The NBR official said the target may be increased by 22 percent over the current fiscal year's earnings and set at Tk 1,12,000 crore.

He said a new VAT law is likely to be introduced in the next fiscal year, and so they are hopeful of meeting the next year's target also.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 30th April 2012

Engr. Mustafa Anwar, vice chairman of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, is seen among the newly recruited assistant officers of the Bank in Dhaka on Sunday.

Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd. (IBBL) gave orientation to its 96 newly-recruited assistant officers on Sunday.

The orientation was organised for the recruits at Mohammad Yunus Auditorium of Islami Bank Tower.

Engr. Mustafa Anwar, vice chairman of the Bank was present as Chief Guest.

Managing director Mohammad Abdul Mannan presided over the function.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 29th April 2012