Bond facilities - NBR policy changes

NBR plans policy changes to check misuse of bond facilities
To battle duty evasion exercised in bonded warehouse facilities the government has detected the incapacity in the existing system to deal with this. Thus, before the next fiscal, the NBR has planned initiatives to ensure bonded warehouse facilities are not extended to regular imports. It has planned to reduce or withdraw VAT on the items under this facilities. Only the 5% duty will be kept and the 15% VAT will be abolished.

Mis-use of bonded warehouse

Businessmen concerned over misuse of duty-free bond facility

Those businesses which are enjoying bonded warehouse facility, which is the importing duty free raw materials for export oriented production processes, are mis-using the aid. Instead of utilizing imported materials for processing export commodities, they are selling it to the local market. This is hitting small traders hard. The FBCCI president alerted traders to remain vigilant. An unchecked and ongoing process, which costs the government Tk 58,000 crore annually. The NBR has been asked to provide a list of merchants enjoying the facility.

Other issues related to encouraging VAT payment, reduction, taxpayer expansion and transparency have been discussed at a pre-budget discussion.

Titas gas facing the heat

Titas Gas share price battered by cuts in distribution charges

Due to a operational policy reformulation, the net market value of Titas gas has fallen by more than Tk3000 crore in the last five months, its share price dropping to a lowest of Tk 42, which didnt fall below Tk60 in the last two years.

By resetting the distribution charges in-line with the new tariff structure allocated by BERC, immediately in one month, the profit disclosed dropped 33%. Titas gas decided to appeal against this decision, since all power and energy resources were re-priced higher, unlike gas. Find out more statistics in the link.

New Industrial Policy

Proposed industrial policy brings in reforms

A list of high priority industries are being formulated within the new industrial policy. 2 new sectors included are the creative industry and the high-priority industry, which is mentioned in the draft Industrial Policy 2016 replacing the previous one.

The prioritized industries are

• agriculture and food processing
• garment
• ICT and software
• Pharmaceuticals
• Leather 
• Jute and jute goods 

Find out more about the draft policy plans in the link

BPO Summit 2015

An opportunity worth billions
A novel conference was held in Dhaka on December 9-10, 2015. It was called the "Business Process Outsourcing Summit 2015". An industry which is still in its early stages in Bangladesh, has been acknowledged and has been emphasized through this conference. The participating speakers who are experts in their field, discussed scaling up the BPO industry to US $1bn by 2021. They called for a road-map with collaborations of the industry and related policy support to achieve this.

Government Incubator for Startups

CONNECTING STARTUPS

"Connecting Startups" is a competition to host the best startup in Bangladesh has been officially launched by the government to  initiate a startup incubator for the country. An absolutely critical initiative, Bangladesh government took up the huge worldwide startup trend to a serious business, by which it made a statement for Digital Bangladesh. Although startups can be broadly categorized as business and entrepreneurship ventures, "Connecting Startups" is under the official support of the ICT division, BASIS and BCC with infrastructural support from the High Tech parks. This translates into most upcoming businesses to adopt an increasingly digital space for their campaigns, which is why the involvement of such governmental departments.

RMG workers database

RMG factories asked to complete workers’ biometric database by December

The workers of RMG factories are to be taken through an IT exercise, when their personal records will now be stored electronically. Biometrics of the employees are to be recorded by December 31 and collected
for processing their benefits, compensations and employer-employee relationship. Their curriculum vitae would also be stored.

Car importers worry

STRANDED CARS AT MONGLA PORT Barvida demands Tk2 lakh duty slab to release each of vehicles

The spotlight today turns to Mongla port where businesses are impeded due to bureaucratic government processes. Some 2,079 reconditioned cars remain stranded due to complexities in customs valuation and unauthorized import of more than five year old cars. Of them, imported between 2009 and 2013, a 1000 cars have been asked to be fixed a duty of Tk 2 lakh each, for their expedited release into the market. In addition to this, release also depends on meeting vehicle demand. The alternative was a counter-proposal to depreciate the cars at 95%, suggested by the Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicle Importers & Dealers Association.

Facebook closure and F-commerce

FB-based business badly hurt

The recent decision by the government, which is not a new one, to close social media empire of Facebook has greatly affected E-commerce, as this mode is still the largest utilization for operations of the industry. An estimated loss of Tk 2 crore daily has been reported and a 25% setback of the overall E-commerce sector is expected by market insiders. Thirty percent of E-commerce is dominated by Facebook-commerce. Orders, sale, logistics are all disrupted by this security intervention, an expected date still not known for resuming normal service.

Bangldesh Doing Business 2016

DCCI for quick business regulatory reforms
Today we look at Bangladesh's performance in the international business ranking.

Graduating to a lower-middle income economy, Bangladesh has made progress. This was witnessed in last session's "Doing Business 2015" report by the World Bank, where Bangladesh improved its rankings. This fiscal years publication, reported however, that Bangladesh is facing a bumpy road to its progress, as it slid down two places in "Doing Business 2016" ranking of 189 countries. We ranked 174th.

Blog Refresh! Mobile Apps

Enough about business news! Let's talk about nurturing your business and helping it match your vision! 

We would try to focus on short snippets of strong business ideas and pragmatic business tips, at least for this week to make information really useful your life and business.

Chasing many other societies, Bangladesh has witnessed a tremendous inspiration in ICT and many of its applications. Entrepreneurs are hyped about E-commerce, individuals are zealous about making themselves heard about their interests online and businesses are marketing their products increasingly on social media. Marketplace has shifted in a virtual world and it seems like the tunnel is not so long when the virtual will match the business volume of the physical marketplace. The stone already rolling, ancillary efforts to promote business, business ideas or even life interests are increasingly done through blogs; and mobile apps.

Just for Small Business- All Business Blog     65 Simple But Effective Ways to Promote Your Mobile App

A very interesting read, this link does what it suggests, listing ways to promote mobile apps. In Bangladesh, apps are still mostly relevant towards business, put more simply, with an interest to generate revenue. This is a section of business process for some and the entire business pivot for others. In such an environment, this list can be all the help you need.

Businesses get online procedure portal National Single Window (NSW)

Online business process to be launched

Business has been a daunting profession from its initiation to day-to-day management and eventually maintaining revenues or a satisfactory profit margin. With every stages of different barriers whether valid or illegitimate, Bangladesh is quite some arena for doing business.

Today we look at a new facility that has been sanctioned by the government for ease of doing business. National Single Window (NSW) is a new system that allows businesses to participate in trade and transportation to apply for standardized documents and information with a single entry point for processing, online. This will cut out all the