TDS Desk

Finance adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed has said that reforms in various sectors, including in financial, capital market and banking ones, are being carried out to solve the crisis that the interim government inherited from the previous regime.

The Finance Adviser said this while talking to the national news agency in an interview at his office at Bangladesh Secretariat marking the completion of three months and beyond by the interim government in office.

About the formation and operations of the white paper committee, the committee on re-strategizing the economy and other committees, he said reforms have become imperative in these sectors, otherwise crisis would go beyond control.

Dr Salehuddin said reforms are being carried out in the financial sector, banking sector and in the capital market.

About the capital market reform, he said a taskforce has been working to monitor the market trend and check manipulation in securities trading. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) lowered the tax rate to 15 percent on capital gains above Tk 50 lakh from selling shares of listed companies on the stock exchanges with the objective to encourage investment in stock market.

Prior to the rate cut, taxpayers had to pay 30 percent tax on the capital gains over Tk 50 lakh if the gains are realised in five years at any time of a year. The ICB has already been given Tk 3000.00 to boost the capital market.

“Now corrective measures are on. These are all for giving a message … unless reforms are carried out, you can’t take corrective actions,” he said.

Turning to the issue of prioritizing the implementation of the development projects, the adviser said, “We’re also reviewing the development projects under the ADP as projects are now being placed in the ECNEC which deemed necessary and have higher rate of return … the ongoing projects will also continue,” he added.

Asked whether the government has added tension over repayment of loans, he said that the government is focusing more on utilization and prioritizing on self needs.

In doing so, he said more pressure may come in the budget, but that would be reviewed while revising the budget especially in the development side.

Dr Salehuddin said the ADP would be made justified as far as possible as it would not be made huge or it would not be curtailed to very small.

“It’s in our active consideration to make the ADP very rationale,” he added.

Asked about the government’s steps ahead of the Holy Month of Ramadan, he said it is not possible to contain inflation in a month or two as there are some structural problems like extortion, market which are being addressed.

“We’re ensuring chickpeas, lentil, onion, dates, and soybean oil during the Ramadan … the prices of sugar, rice and other commodities increased due to the global market condition,” he added.

The finance adviser went on saying, “Ours is an imported inflation to a big extent … despite this, we reduced duty on imported items … TCB will enhance its coverage if necessary through truck sales alongside DAE and such operation might continue till December and beyond”.

At the production stage, the adviser said incentives would continue in producing eggs, in feed cost of farmers, stabilizing rice price so that production is increased during Ramadan. “We’ve assured that there would be no scarcity during the holy month,” he added.

He said if the private importers do not import rice, then the Directorate General of Food would do so of its own alongside ensuring supply of soybean oil by TCB.

Meanwhile, the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) has taken necessary preparations ahead of the Holy Month of Ramadan through importing commodities as well as local procurement of items.

As part of its huge activities, the TCB would sell some 20,000 metric tons of lentil, 2 crore liters of edible oil and 10,000 metric tons of sugar every month alongside selling onion and potatoes across the country through imports under the directives of the Ministry of Commerce.

Apart from this, the TCB would sale 10,000 metric tons of chickpeas and 1,500 metric tons of dates during the fasting month.

Meanwhile, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has waived the 5.0 per cent regulatory duty on onion imports, reduced customs duty from 25 per cent to 15 per cent for import of potatoes, and set a 5.0 per cent customs duty on pesticide imports to control rising prices in the local market.

The revenue authority has also waived the value-added tax (VAT) on local production and trading stages of soybean oil, palm oil, and other edible oils.

The government has also reduced the VAT on imports of crude and refined soybean oil, palm oil, and other edible oils to 10 percent from the existing 15 per cent.

The authority has also cut import duty on eggs from existing 25 per cent to 5 per cent to increase the supply of eggs in the market and reduce the price of eggs at consumer level.

The government has also formed a “special taskforce” to monitor and review the market situation and supply chain of essentials at the district level.