BSF kills Bangladeshi cattle trader

The Indian Border Security Force (BSF) shot dead a Bangladeshi cattle trader on Bonchowki border in the district’s Hatibandha upazila yesterday morning.
The dead is Shahinul Islam, 27, son of Mohammad Ali of Amjhal village of the upazila.
Sources of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) said the BSF men of Dhumerketu camp of Cooch Behar district in West Bengal opened fire on a group of cattle traders around 8:30am while they were returning home through the border along with some cattle.
Shahinul was hit by bullets in the back, legs and hands. He however managed to reach home.
Later, he died on the way to Rangpur Medical College Hospital.
Lt Col Mahbubur Rahman, commanding officer of Lalmonirhat 15 BGB Battalion, said the BGB already sent a letter to the BSF, protesting at the killing.

Kumari Puja celebrated

Thousands of Hindu devotees flocked to puja mandaps across the country yesterday to celebrate Kumari Puja.
The celebrations marked the triumph of good over evil.
The rituals began in the morning where girls were worshipped as the goddess at puja mandaps, including the capital’s Ramkrishna Mission.
The worshipped girl symbolises the power that regulates creation, stability and destruction on earth.
The goddess is bathed symbolically and dressed for the final battle. It is believed that on this day, Durga killed the demon.
In old days, a buffalo was offered as sacrifice to the goddess. These days, bananas, pumpkins and cucumbers replaced the animal.
Also known as Maha Ashtami, the day holds special significance in the social and religious calendar of the Hindus.

Hanif ‘removed’

Following an exchange of words over his running in the next parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has relieved her Special Assistant Mahbubul Alam Hanif of his duties, Awami League insiders said.
Even though there was no official notification from the Prime Minister’s Office in this regard, several Awami League sources confirmed Hanif’s removal.
Hanif, also a joint general secretary of the ruling party, said he was oblivious to the matter.
Awami League insiders said Hanif engaged in an unusual exchange of words with party president Hasina at a grassroots meeting on Wednesday. At the meeting, Kushtia’s Mirpur upazila Awami League unit General Secretary Kamarul Arefin appealed to Hasina to nominate Hanif from Kushtia-2 [Mirpur-Bheramara] constituency in the next parliamentary polls.
Hasina told Kamarul that Hanif would not be eligible to contest the parliamentary elections, as per the Representation of the People’s Order (RPO), since he holds a government post and enjoys salaries and other facilities.
Hanif then told Hasina that he had consulted the Election Commission about his running for parliament and the EC told him that since he was the special assistant to the prime minister, he could run.
The prime minister then told Hanif that the EC might have said this as he was the special assistant to the prime minister but it would cancel his nomination ahead of the elections due to restrictions imposed by the RPO.
A seemingly irritated Hasina told Hanif that he gets honour and salutes from people for being the special assistant to her. But, he would have to face harsh reality if he quits the position.
Hanif argued with the prime minister and added that he was ready to quit his post.
Hasina seemed unhappy with this comment.
At this stage, Awami League Deputy Office Secretary Mrinal Kanti Das stood up and said the party’s joint general secretary was arguing with the party chief at a grassroots meeting, which was very unfortunate. Hasina then asked Mrinal to stop talking.
The Daily Star learnt about this exchange of words from several central, district, and upazila leaders of Awami League over the last two days.
At the meeting, around 100 grassroots leaders of eight districts, including Kushtia, were present.

No step yet to get them released

More than 2,000 Bangladeshi workers who have been languishing in foreign prisons are spending their days in frustration, as the Bangladesh government is yet to take any steps to have them released.
The prisoners are in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, Libya and Italy, according to reports of Bangladesh’s missions in the countries.
The labour counsellors of the missions submitted the reports to the government at a labour attaché conference held in Dhaka last month.
Over 1,000 Bangladeshis are behind bars in Malaysia alone, on charges of illegal entry, violation of labour laws, murder, theft and some other crimes. Saudi Arabia comes second, with at least 598 Bangladeshis in its prisons.
The missions’ officials urged the Bangladesh foreign affairs ministry and its expatriates welfare ministry to take effective measures to broker their release immediately.
The officials recommended the ministries take strict measures to prevent illegal migration of Bangladeshis abroad and pay special attention when dealing with it.
“Necessary security checks have to be made in Bangladesh before sending any worker abroad. This will ensure legal entry of Bangladeshis and their crimes will go down,” said a labour counsellor in his report.
“If the Bangladeshis’ criminal activities cannot be stopped abroad, the labour recruiters may leave us,” he mentioned.
The labour counsellors urged the government to make sure migrant job seekers have the required clearance before departure so that no one with a criminal record can go abroad.
Rudaw English, a private online newspaper from the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, reported on September 26 that 79 Bangladeshi nationals had been held for months in a Kurdistan prison without trial.
Based on this and other media reports, the Bangladeshi foreign ministry sent a letter to its embassy in Baghdad to have them freed, “but no effective measures were taken for the victims”, said Lt Col Ziadur Rahman, labour counsellor of the embassy.
Replying to the letter, he suggested that the ministry take the help of International Organisation for Migration because the issue had become “very complex”, he told The Daily Star over the phone recently.
Rahman added that he had contacted the interior ministry of the Kurdistan administration but the authorities there were uncooperative.
The embassy then made repeated requests to the two Bangladeshi ministries about the prisoners, who had been held for illegal entry from neighbouring Iran in March. But to no avail.
Contacted, Nazrul Islam, Bangladesh foreign ministry director general (west and central Asia wing), said the ministry was working on it, adding, however, “It is taking long.”

Bangladesh telecoms set for faster growth

The country will become a mature mobile market in the next few years, said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, president of Telenor, Grameenphone’s majority shareholder.
“We have seen phenomenal development in the ICT sector in Bangladesh. It took us more than 15 years to connect with 50 percent of Bangladesh, but for the next 50 percent it will only take a handful of years,” he told The Daily Star in an interview.
Baksaas was in Dhaka recently for the soft launch of Grameenphone’s 3G services, for which the company paid $210 million.
The advent of 3G, he says, will accelerate the country’s development.
“People will have access to the internet everywhere, which means they would be never far from services such as healthcare and banking. This will help the economy grow.”
Grameenphone, which has already rolled out 3G services in certain parts of Dhaka, plans to cover the remaining areas of the capital together with Chittagong, Sylhet, Gazipur and Narayanganj within the next few weeks.
“Most of the country barring some pockets will be covered in the next 2-3 years. And in the long run, those parts, too, would be brought under the 3G network.”
Telenor, which owns 55.8 percent of Grameenphone, is very gung-ho about the company’s role in the country’s next phase of telecommunication.
For enhanced 3G connectivity for Grameenphone’s 43.96 million-odd subscribers, some 2,000 base transceiver stations would be set up across several cities over the next six months to support the 12,000 already in existence.
“Our quality of 3G services will be very good,” said Baksaas, who has been with Telenor since 1989.
To take 3G services to a greater number of people, Telenor is already in talks with a host of vendors to come up with low-cost but good-quality 3G-enabled phones or smartphones, which remain beyond the means of the majority of the country’s population.
“Less than 10 percent of the country’s population have smartphones, which is an obstacle for 3G services.”
The prices of smartphones now start at $60, but he thinks it should come down to $40.
To date, Telenor has invested about $3 billion to develop the infrastructure and network of Grameenphone, the country’s largest mobile operator.
“There will be many more significant investments in the next couple of years. I cannot tell you the exact figure but we are talking big money over a long period of time.”
The company has also paid more than $3 billion to the Bangladesh government in taxes, he added.
Telenor, whose global subscription base stands at 150 million, has big plans for the neighbouring Myanmar, where it is one of the two operators chosen from 95 candidates to offload mobile services.
“Myanmar needs to go on the same development path. Why should your neighbouring country not enjoy the same modern communication system that you do? Of course they should.”
Telenor plans to roll out services in Myanmar next year and Baksaas is hopeful that Telenor’s strong track record in serving Asian countries will put it in good stead.
“We are happy that the long term experience in the Asian market will strengthen us in serving the Burmese people.”

IDRA likely to hike premiums for garment insurance

Garment manufacturers are unlikely to enjoy low premium rates for long as the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) looks set to hike rates for fire, marine and miscellaneous insurances for them.
Since 2004, the members of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association have been paying Tk 0.17 and Tk 0.19 as monthly premium on every Tk 100 for fire and marine insurance respectively.
In contrast, the members of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association pay Tk 0.29 and Tk 0.30 respectively.
“It will take a couple of months to review the premium rates of all kinds of insurance,” M Shefaq Ahmed, president of IDRA, said, adding that not all premium rates would be increased.
Atiqul Islam, president of BGMEA, said the rise in premium would have an adverse effect on the garment industry, seeing the industry is going through a bad time.
He urged the IDRA to negotiate with the BGMEA before taking any decision.
Jahangir Alamin, president of BTMA, demanded premium rates for textile firms be brought down to the same level as garment firms.
“Our textile mills work as a backward linkage to garments firm affiliated with BGMEA and BKMEA. So the IDRA should give us the same facilities.”
BTMA has 1,370 members with investment of Tk 30,000 crore, according to Alamin.

Vietnam: a close competitor to Bangladesh RMG

Vietnamese garment makers are strengthening their foothold in key markets, putting new pressure on the Bangladesh apparel sector.
Competition will further intensify if the United States awards Vietnam the generalised system of preferences (GSP), a trade privilege scheme, as negotiations are currently underway for garment products.
Bangladesh exported nearly $18 billion in the nine months to September, with Vietnam trailing behind. With its robust growth, the Southeast Asian nation exported about $13.15 billion of garments, registering an 18 percent rise year-on-year in the same period.
Vietnam’s garment exports grew 9.98 percent to $14.1 billion in 2012 from $12.82 billion in 2011, according to data from Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Associaiton.
Vietnam is surely a major competitor for Bangladesh in the global readymade garments business as its performance is going strong, said Sadiq Ahmed, vice-chairman of the Policy Research Institute.
“It will be worrisome for Bangladesh if the garment items are included in the GSP scheme for Vietnam,” Ahmed told The Daily Star.
Still, Bangladesh is in an advantageous position compared to Vietnam, thanks to lower labour costs.
Vietnam’s textiles and garments industry has developed rapidly in recent years and has become a vital activity within the country’s economy, Ahmed said. It could attract large sums of foreign direct investment, mainly from China and South Korea, as the nation has flexible policies and good infrastructure, he said.
Vietnam has been enjoying a lower tariff rate on apparel exports to the US since 2001 when the American government gave Vietnam the Most Favoured Nation status.
On the other hand, Bangladesh has been paying a 15.3 percent duty on apparel exports to the US as the country has been kept away from any duty-benefit.
In 2012, Bangladeshi garment makers paid $746 million to US customs as duty for exporting garment items worth a little over $5 billion. Despite hectic negotiations, Bangladeshi garment items were not included in the US GSP scheme, which was suspended on June 27, citing poor labour rights and shortcomings in safety measures in the factories.
In addition, according to a recent survey by McKinsey & Company, a US-based consulting firm, Vietnam will continue as the second top sourcing country after Bangladesh to the international retailers for the next five years.
Garment exports from Bangladesh grew 12.69 percent to $21.51 billion in 2012-13 from the previous year, while it grew 6.97 percent to $19.9 billion in 2011-12 from 2010-11, according to BGMEA data.
Bangladesh exported garment items worth $17.91 billion in 2010-11 and $12.5 billion in the year before that.
At present, the number of garment factories in Bangladesh is 5,000 and 2,000 in Vietnam, according to the McKinsey report.
However, Tipu Munshi, a former BGMEA president, said: “Bangladesh will not be affected, even if Vietnam is awarded the GSP status by the US.”
“We should pay attention to solving domestic problems.”
Munshi is rather upbeat that Bangladesh is also receiving a significant portion of the orders that shifted from China. “Vietnam or Myanmar might go stronger in garment business in future, but Bangladesh will not be affected by this.”
Vietnam pays entry-level garment workers $80 in minimum wage a month, compared with $40 in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh will remain more competitive than Vietnam even if the salary is hiked, said Sirajul Islam Rony, workers’ representative on the wage board for garment workers formed in June. The board is likely to announce the fresh wage hike this month, Rony said.
“The living standards of garment workers are higher in Vietnam than in Bangladesh,” said Rony, who visited some garment factories in Vietnam to take decisions on the minimum wage.
Garment workers in Vietnam also get government subsidies in different forms, mainly on house rents, he said. The only relief for Bangladesh workers is that, the prices of basic commodities are lower here than in Vietnam, he said.

Tanners announce rawhide prices

Tanners yesterday announced the purchase rates for rawhides during Eid-ul-Azha in a bid to prevent the traders from gaining a windfall at their expense.
Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leathergoods and Footwear Exporters’ Association, Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) and Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants Association (BHSMA) jointly announced that they would buy per square feet of salted cowhide for Tk 85-95 in Dhaka and Tk 75-80 elsewhere, goatskin for Tk 50-55 and buffalo skin for Tk 40-45.
“We will buy hides only at these prices at the factory level. We will not pay any higher than the declared rates,” said Belal Hossain, chairman of the exporters’ association.
But the prices at which the traders would procure the rawhides from households are most likely to be lower than the rates quoted by the tanneries.
He said traders, including the seasonal ones, last year bought hides from people on the cheap and sold at higher prices to tanneries.
“It created an untoward situation and we had to face the blame,” he said, adding that such a situation occurred because of non-declaration of any price by the industry ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, a religious festival which enables the tanneries to land half of their annual supply of rawhides.
The prices were fixed taking into account the leather prices on the international market and the number of orders received during various leather-related fairs this year.
“The biggest buyers of Bangladesh’s leather are Italy and China, but prices are declining there in line with the international market. Plus, the international leather fairs this year did not bring in our expected level of orders.”
“We do not know where the market will be in the next six months. So we have declared an average price considering various factors,” said Ali Hossain, chairman of BHSMA.
At present, the price of cowhide in Dhaka is Tk 90-95 per sft, he said.
The previous Eid fetched the tanneries 55 lakh pieces of rawhide, but this time they are expecting 65 lakh pieces, said Md Shaheen Ahamed, chairman of BTA.
“We expect more animals to be slaughtered this Eid because it is an election year.”
The leather and leather goods industry earned over half a billion in exports in fiscal 2012-13, according to Export Promotion Bureau.

Ministry discards Jubok’s loan plea

The finance ministry has rejected an application for soft loans of Tk 1,000 crore of Jubo Karmasangsthan Society to repay the liabilities of its members, a top official of the ministry said.
Jubok sent the letter to the finance minister on October 2.
“We are not considering Jubok’s demand. They (Jubok) send letters to us quite often,” M Aslam Alam, secretary of Bank and Financial Institutions Division, told The Daily Star on Thursday.
Rather, the ministry has been working on the outcome and recommendations of the report on Jubok, which a permanent commission formed to probe into the firm’s irregularities has recently submitted, he said.
Jubok’s operations were suspended and bank accounts frozen in 2006, on charges of illegal banking.
Jubok took deposits worth around Tk 3,000 crore from thousands of its members offering hefty returns.
Jubok had set up over a dozen subsidiaries, including telecommunication, real estate development, tourism, private universities, health and agriculture.
It also bought shares of IFIC Bank and RTV.
The government in 2010 formed an inquiry commission on Jubok, headed by Mohammad Farash Uddin Ahmed, former governor of the Bangladesh Bank.
The commission suggested the government establish a permanent commission to help Jubok members get their deposits back.
Accordingly, the government in May 2011 formed a permanent commission headed by Rafiqul Islam, a former joint secretary, to probe into the Jubok irregularities and suggest how to recover the members’ lost money.
The commission, after two years of inquiry, submitted the report to the finance ministry in May this year. The commission suggested suing the Jubok masterminds.
“We have the nod of the finance minister to go ahead with the commission’s recommendations and accordingly have requested the Anti-Corruption Commission to take action against the culprits,” Alam said.
He said the finance ministry has also sought the law ministry’s vetting on whether it can return Jubok members’ money by selling its properties.
As per the commission findings, Jubok owes over Tk 2,500 crore to its three lakh members, but the firm has less than Tk 1 crore in its accounts in different banks.
The commission did not audit the total assets of Jubok as those were not in the term of reference.
Hossain Al Masum, executive director of Jubok, however, claimed that they have paid liabilities of 225,000 members worth Tk 700 crore. Of which, Tk 200 crore was paid in cash and the remaining amount was cleared in return for plots and lands.
“We have sought Tk 1,000 crore soft loans from the government to return all liabilities of our members by next year. The government can take mortgage of our assets across the country against the loans,” Masum said.

IMF to impose more conditions for loans

The International Monetary Fund is set to tag two new conditions for the release of the fifth instalment of its $1 billion extended credit facility.
One of the conditions stipulates that an international audit be conducted in three state enterprises — Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) — while the other states that recapitalisation of the state banks must be linked to performance and done in phases.
The IMF mission that visited Dhaka between September 22 and October 6 decided to impose the conditions and would formally inform the government complete with a plan of action over the next couple of weeks, a finance ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
“In every budget a huge amount is given as subsidy to the state-owned enterprises and the IMF feels a huge amount of it is wasted,” the official said.
Of the Tk 37,399 crore counted as subsidy in the revised budget for fiscal 2012-13, a major chunk was for petroleum products, fertilisers and electricity.
Although the government has already conducted a special audit in the three enterprises, the multilateral lender is sceptical that it gave out the true picture.
“Therefore, the IMF has proposed an audit by a reputed international accountancy firm,” he said, adding that the government has primarily agreed to the audit of the BPC. The audits of BCIC and BPDB would be conducted at a later date.
As for the state banks, the IMF is disbelieving that the four banks’ total classified loans come to between Tk 10,000 crore and Tk 17,200 crore. Bangladesh Bank statistics show the shortfall to be around Tk 10,000 crore, while the World Bank deduces it to be around Tk 17,200 crore.
“The IMF mission reviewed the financial indicators of the banks individually and estimated the shortfall to be even higher than the WB figure,” the finance ministry official said.
To overcome the massive shortfall owing to various irregularities, the government has already set aside Tk 5,000 crore in the current budget to recapitalise four state banks.
The IMF mission stipulated that the amount be given in 2-3 instalments and not in one go, and that too after satisfactory performance in BB’s quarterly reviews.
“Their line of reasoning being that the budgetary fund comes from public tax money and the government’s ongoing practice of doling out people’s money to state banks, who, in turn, squander the amount, cannot continue,” the official added.