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The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry suggested introduction of separate corporate tax for small and medium enterprises and fixing the lowest import duty at 2.5 per cent, down from six per cent now.
   The apex chamber recommended extension of the tax holiday facility up to 2010 to help rapid industrialisation and encourage much-needed backward linkage industries.
   Individual tax-free income limit should be increased to Tk 1.50 lakh from existing Tk 1 lakh taking into account the inflated cost of living. Tax exemption
   limits should be 2 lakh and 2.5 lakh for women entre-
   preneurs and senior citizens, it proposed.
   High income professionals like doctors and lawyers should be brought under tax dragnet and NGO-run businesses be taxed, the apex private sector body said in its proposals for the next budget.
   It advised the government to ignore diktats of the multilateral lenders while finalising fiscal measures for the upcoming budget year beginning from
   July 1.
   ‘The excessive interference from the World Bank and the IMF in fixing the import duty rates created negative impact on national economy since Bangladesh as a least developed country is relieved of any World Trade Organisation compulsion for duty cuts,’ Mir Nasir Hossain, president of FBCCI, said in its statement at the pre-budget consultation arranged by the National Board of Revenue on Sunday.
   The annual pre-budget exercise, designed to get the pulse of the private sector in regards to the new budget, was attended by the finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman and leaders of key chambers and trade associations.
   The FBCCI proposals, which are a summary of budget proposals drawn from various trade chambers and associations, were formally placed to the revenue authorities for inclusion in the budget.
   The apex chamber said the corporate tax for small and medium enterprises should be fixed at 25 and 30 per cent respectively.
   The company having assessed income not exceeding Tk 1 crore should be taxed at a rate of 25 per cent if it is listed with the stock market.
   On the other hand, the company having similar amount of assessed income but not listed should be taxed at the rate of 30 per cent, the proposal said.
   A listed company with income above Tk 1 crore, should be taxed at 30 per cent rate while it should be 35 per cent for a non-listed one.
   Currently, no slab system exists in the area of corporate tax.
   The existing across-the-board corporate tax rates are 40 per cent for non-listed companies and 30 per cent for listed ones irrespective of their income base.
   Besides, 45 per cent corporate tax is applicable for banks and financial institutions.
   On customs duty, the federation suggested that the lowest import duty should be reduced to 2.5 per cent in the upcoming budget while the highest slab be kept unchanged at 25 per cent.
   It proposed that the government should introduce ‘specific duty’ on import of essential commodities, especially food items, to check local price volatility of items whose supply depends on international market.
   ‘Avaldoram duty inflates price of commodities with the rise in global market prices. Specific duties can be imposed to keep domestic price of essentials including sugar, salt, pulses, edible oil, milk, fuels, clinker and metals,’ said Mir Nasir Hossain.
   Amir Hossain Khan, representing country’s shop owners’ association, suggested that import duty on per kilogram of sugar can be Tk 10, Tk 4 for red lentil and Tk 2 for onion to make their prices stable in local market.
   Mir Nasir recommended withdrawal of the infrastructural development surcharge (IDSC) levied on the essential goods, capital machinery and industrial raw materials.
   He called for simplifying the existing tax structure further to help remove the hassles of businessmen.
   Import duty on the basic raw materials should be reduced to 2.5 per cent, while it should be 12.5 and 25 per cent for intermediate goods and finished products respectively.
   Currently, the customs duties in the three categories are 6.0 per cent, 13 per cent and 25 per cent.
   Small industries with annual turnover up to Tk 50 lakh should be exempted from tax net, demanded the business leader, stressing that VAT collection process should be made transparent and simple.
   The 470-point budget recommendations, which covered the areas of customs, income tax and value added tax, included further reduction in duty on raw materials, easy funds for industries and simple and corruption-free tax administration.
   While making strong points in favour of the recommendations, business leaders echoed the demand for uninterrupted power supply to keep their productions on.

The Bangladesh Bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed Sunday expressed concern over the relatively high rate of bank interest on deposits and savings instruments as it is hampering the participation of small investors in the capital market.
   ‘Participation of small investors is being hampered by the availability of relatively high rate of return on deposits and other savings instruments. Recently banks have been informed of our concern over the issue,’ Salehuddin Ahmed told a seminar, jointly organised by Standard Chartered Bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission in Dhaka.
   The BB governor’s comments followed the previous claim of the capital market stakeholders that small investors were diverting their funds from the market to benefit from higher interest rates on deposits and on savings instruments.
   He referred to the banks’ response on the issue and said banks have arrived at a consensus to rationalise the interest rate structure.
   He said capital market is imperative not only for the banking system but also for the entrepreneurs as it enables them to raise debt without fixed capital.
   He also underscored the need for an active secondary market for government securities. ‘An IMF expert is working with the central bank to identify and remove deterrents towards further activating secondary market for public securities,’ he said
   Ahmed also called on the cellphone operators and service sector companies to go public.
   ‘Due to dearth of goods securities, at a time of rising demand, excessive demand puts pressure on shares of companies having good fundamentals resulting in volatility in the market,’ the SEC chairman, Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi, said.
   He also stressed the need for true and fair reflection of companies’ health in their annual statements. The Standard Charted Bank’s country head, Osman Murad, also spoke on the occasion.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange has approved the direct listing applications of the Power Grid Company Bangladesh and the Dhaka Electric Supply Company, two public sector electricity entities looking to sell off one-
   forth of their stakes in the stock market.
   The approval was given at the bourse’s board meeting on Sunday after a sub-committee recommended that PGCB and DESCO should get listed with the bourse, DSE officials said.
   The Investment Corporation of Bangladesh, the issue manager, submitted the applications on May 4, seeking direct listing of PGCB and DESCO.
   The two government-owned electricity companies under the power ministry want to offload 25 per cent of their shares.
   The PGCB seeks to raise Tk 90.09 crore and the DESCO Tk 32 crore from public sales of their shares, each valued Tk 100.
   Earlier on March 20, the government asked PGCB and DESCO to get listed with stock market by May 15 for selling off 25 per cent of their shares.
   The DSE board on Sunday also approved listing of S Alam Cold Rolled Steels, which is set to start share trading at the DSE from May 16 under settlement category A.
   The Chittagong Stock Exchange approved the application of S Alam Cold Rolled Steels on May 8, but share trading will begin on May 16 at the port city bourse under category A.
   During the initial public offers between February 19 and 26, S Alam Steels offered 1.2 million shares to public for Tk 100 each.

Credit flow to the private sector in the July-March period of the current fiscal year has crossed the monetary target set by the central bank for the period under review.
   Against the backdrop, the Bangladesh Bank continued mopping up liquidity from the money market as a part of its tight monetary stance but did not signal for any more rate hike.
   The central bank statistics showed that credit to the private sector amounted to Tk 139.76 billion during the first three quarters of the fiscal year 2005-06 pushing the total outstanding at Tk 1,247 billion at the end-March 2006.
   The outstanding amount is 2.8 per cent higher over the target of Tk 1,213 billion as set in the half-yearly monetary policy statement of the Bangladesh Bank.
   The growth rate of the credit flow is 12.6 per cent in the July-March period that is, however, below the target growth rate of 13.9 per cent.
   The point-to-point growth rate is higher on March 2006, some 17 per cent over the same month of 2005, reveals the provisional estimation of the central bank.
   The growth rates were lower in February 2006 as both annual and point-to-point rates were 10.52 per cent and 16.2 per cent respectively over the previous period.
   ‘The trend gives us a rationale for maintaining its current monetary stance,’ said a senior official of the central bank.
   ‘Excess liquidity is still in the market and we have to down bring it at a desired level.’
   In fact, the central bank continued its application of monetary instruments to mop up liquidity from the market as some Tk 4,971 crore from the market through the reverse repo auctions between May 2 and 14.
   Only on Sunday, the Bangladesh Bank mopped up some Tk 2,166.5 crore from the market through the reverse repo auction for the com- mercial banks and financial institutions.
   One bid of one-day tenure amounting to Tk 75 crore and two bids of seven-day tenure amounting to a total of Tk 2,166.50 crore in grand total three bids amounting to Tk 2,241.50 crore were received, said a press release of the central bank.
   Of these, two bids of seven-day tenure amounting to a total of Tk 2,166.50 crore were accepted. The rate of interest against the accepted bids was 6.25 per cent per annum.
   On the other hand, in the 20th auction of the treasury bills in the current year, the central bank also extracted some Tk 158.9 crore from the market against the re- ceived bid amount worth Tk 166.90 crore.
   Tk 156.20 crore, Tk 1 crore, Tk 0.30 crore and Tk 1.40 crore of 28-day, 182-day, 364-day and 2-year t-bills were accepted by the central bank and the ranges of the implicit yield of the accepted bids were 7.07 per cent. 7.65 per cent, 8.10 per cent and 8.85 per cent per annum respectively.
   The bills worth Tk 161.90 crore will be retired in the current week and so net issuance will decline by Tk 3 crore in the week, said another press release of the central bank.
   The Bangladesh Bank, however, did not channel any fund to the market. In the repo auction on Sunday, one bid of one-day tenure amounting to Tk 280 crore was received but not accepted.

A high-powered team of Bangladeshi fisheries experts left here today for Bangkok to help enhance cooperation in this vital sector between Thailand and Bangladesh.
   The team will hold meetings with the senior officials of Thai government, leaders of Thai Frozen Food Association
   and other stakeholders in addition to participating in a
   seminar on the benefit of Rules of Origin.
   The Thai Foreign Minister will inaugurate the seminar, a press release of Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association (BFFEA) said.
   The team members during their six-day stay in Thailand will also visit some fish and shrimp farms, auction centre and fishing trawlers to see for themselves the quality as well as traceability complying the Thai Shrimp processors and exporters.
   According to the press release, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between BFFEA and TFFA is expected to be signed to enhance better understanding and cooperation in the fisheries sector between Bangladesh and Thailand.
   The team members include ASM Rashidul Hai, Chairman, Bangladesh Fisheries Development Corporation (BADC), Maqsudur Rahman, President, (BFFEA), Syed Mahmudul Huq, Chairman, Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF), Engr. M Tawhidur Rahman, Secretary General, BFFEA, Zafar Ahmed, Ex-president, BFFEA, Syed Ziaul Huq, Convenor, BFFEA, Cox’s Bazar and a senior official of Sea Resources Ltd.

Country’s crab and eel fish exporters have demanded reduction of export duty, easing the process to get non-objection certificate and adequate space in the flights to boost earning from the sector.
   Addressing a press conference, Moazzem Rashidi Doza, president of the Bangladesh Live Crab and Eel Fish Exporter Association, Sunday said that as perishable items, the government should declare these items as emergency exportable goods.
   According to the exporters, with involvement of thousands of people from country’s coastal zone, including Chittagong, Noakhali, Khulna, Barisal and Patuakhali, the sector earned about Tk 40 crore last year.
   Uttam Kumar Barua, general secretary of the association, said that sea products are being exported to Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, and Malaysia.

A clients’ get together on the occasion of ‘Service Month’ of the Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited was observed in
   different branch offices of the bank recently.
   The clients’ get-together was held in the bank’s Dhaka Cantonment, Gaibandha, Satkhira, Torki branch at Gournadi Pourasava, Kustia, Benapole branch in Jessore, Lalmonirhat, Natore, Modhupur, Panchagar, Kashinathpur, Borguna Santhia, Nazipur branches.

The prices of commodities such as oil, copper, aluminium, platinum and sugar are smashing records — and will head higher owing to fierce demand from economic powerhouses India and China, analysts say.
   With sizzling rates of growth in the two emerging giants, home to one third of the world’s population, supplies of raw materials will likely be stretched even further.
   Low global inventories, limited production, supply disruptions and fierce demand prompted frenzied speculative buying across much of the metals complex last week.
   Platinum, aluminium, zinc, nickel and copper struck historic peaks, while silver and gold hit the highest level since 1980. Copper forged a record 8,800 dollars per tonne and gold reached 730.40 dollars per ounce.
   China is the world’s biggest consumer of copper, platinum, wool, cotton and rubber, and the second biggest market for crude oil after the United States.
   India, meanwhile, is the largest consumer of gold and silver.
   ‘With strong (economic) growth in the emerging markets and further acceleration in Japan and Europe expected to continue... we maintain a positive outlook for commodity returns, despite the recent price rally,’ said Jeffrey Currie, London-based analyst at US investment bank Goldman Sachs.
   ‘Growth in emerging countries and in China in particular is expected to become an ever-larger share of global economic growth, which we believe will underpin commodity demand growth.’
   China’s economy is expected to grow at around 9.5 per cent this year after expanding 9.9 per cent in 2005, according to estimates from the International Monetary Fund.
   The global economy, meanwhile, is forecast to grow by 4.9 per cent this year, followed by 4.7 per cent in 2007.
   High commodity prices fuel fears of rising inflation because they can erode companies’ profits and crimp global economic growth.
   Thus far, however, they have had little negative effect, some analysts contend.
   ‘Commodity price inflation shows no sign of abating,’ said economist Lars Kreckel at Dutch bank ABN Amro.
   ‘Corporate sector (profit) margins have proven robust as strong volume growth has offset cost pressures. But as the global economy reverts to trend growth, some sectors could see profitability squeezed.’
   Although mining and oil companies are energised by high metal and crude prices, other sectors are hit hard.
   In the airline industry, many carriers have imposed fuel surcharges to compensate for the surging price of jet fuel amid record crude prices, which recently hit records above 75 dollars per barrel.

The United States said Sunday it had clinched a bilateral market access deal with Vietnam that will help clear the path to its former wartime enemy joining the World Trade Organisation.
   US Trade Representative Rob Portman said the agreement in principle, reached after nearly a week of talks here, should lower Vietnamese barriers to a wide range of US indus-
   trial goods, farm produce and services.
   ‘This is a very good agreement for the United States,’ he said in a statement confirming the agreement, which was reported by the Vietnamese state media Sunday.
   ‘This agreement also signals an historic step in our bilateral relationship,’ Portman added.
   ‘Vietnam recognises that broad-based reform and economic liberalization are essential to its integration into the global economy. We intend to work hard with Vietnam to complete the process of its full accession to the WTO in the near future.’
   The bilateral agreement will be signed in the ‘near future’ once legal consultations are complete, added Portman’s statement, which did not go into any detail about the agreement’s contents.
   VietnamNet said Hanoi’s ambassador to Washington, Nguyen Tam Chien, had confirmed a deal in principle.
   ‘There are no more clouds in Washington, the sun is coming out,’ he was quoted as saying.
   After Vietnam signed a WTO deal with Mexico last month, the United States was the last country with which it needed to conclude bilateral negotiations in order to join the global trade body.

The upper crust or sophisticated business clients of a Swiss private bank would appear to be unlikely investors in sometimes rabble-rousing ‘media heroes’ in developing or emerging nations.
   But Zurich’s Vontobel Bank believes there is sufficient demand to warrant an innovative investment fund aimed specifically at providing independent newspapers, radio, TV or other media with the kind of finance that allows freedom of the press to flourish.
   ‘There are quite a few high net-worth individuals who don’t just want a financial return,’ said Claudia Kraaz, a spokeswoman for Vontobel.
   ‘We really see a growing demand from institutional and, above all, private clients for social investments,’ she added.
   On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, the bank and its partners announced the 20-million-Swiss-franc Media Development fund that will be launched on financial markets later this month.
   About 80 per cent of it will be a conventional fixed term, five-year investment, providing a steady Swiss-style financial return to investors.
   The rest will be a loan at an interest rate of one per cent per year to the Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF), an agency set up by a former head of the Serbian independent radio station B-92, which was once a thorn in the side of the Milosevic regime.
   ‘It won’t be a product that sells in the hundreds of mi- llions of Swiss francs,’ Kraaz acknowledged. ‘But there is a demand, we’ve been seeing that lately.’

Thailand’s political crisis and an ongoing insurgency in the south are driving away Asian holidaymakers, with industry experts warning the kingdom could miss its annual tourism target.
   The state-run Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has forecast that 13.8 million foreign tourists will visit the kingdom this year. Asians make up 60 per cent of the total.
   But the Kasikorn Research Center said tourist arrivals would reach 12.5 million, with tourism revenue seen at 460 billion
   baht ($12.2 billion), down
   from the TAT’s target of 486 billion baht.
   Tourism is a key money spinner for Thailand, accounting for six per cent of the economy. While the center’s forecasts of arrivals and revenue fell short of the TAT’s goals, both were still higher than in 2005.
   ‘Protracted demonstrations and unrest in the south may intensify during the interim government,’ the center said in a paper. ‘This will affect the tourism atmosphere in the late part of the first quarter, and many tourists could delay or change their plans.’
   Suparerk Soorangura, former president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, also forecast a slowdown in foreign tourism due to the unrest in the country’s south.
   ‘The violence in the south is continuing and that might affect tourist arrivals this year,’ Suparerk told AFP.

Microsoft and Google are girding for battle for supremacy over the information technology sector, a duel watched closely by others in the sector.
   The spectacular rise of Google in the past few years has raised questions about whether the Internet search titan is on track to dethrone Microsoft and Bill Gates as the undisputed high-tech superpower.
   To meet the challenge, Microsoft is pouring billions of dollars into its most significant wave of product launches in years, including the new version of the Windows operating system called Vista, and new version of the Office suite of business software.
   Microsoft is also moving into growing businesses such as Internet search and online advertising, where it is trailing Google and other competitors.
   It is also investing on a dozen other fronts, including making the most of the early start Xbox 360 holds over Sony in the lucrative video-game market.
   ‘Today, we believe we face the largest array of opportunities for growth and innovation the company has ever seen,’ Microsoft chief financial officer Chris Liddell said recently.
   But concerns about Microsoft’s dominance were underscored by the most recent quarterly results of the two firms.
   Google reported a 60 per cent gain in profits (to 592 million dollars), while Microsoft’s 16.4 per cent gain (to 2.98 billion dollars) disappointed financial
   markets.
   Amid fears that it is being overtaken, Microsoft has been seeking new alliances. According to the Financial Times, Yahoo chairman and CEO Terry Semel said at a Syracuse University question-and-answer session that the company turned down an offer from Microsoft Corp. to buy a stake.
   He said the groups discussed ‘Microsoft co-owning some of our search,’ but added, ‘I will not sell a piece of search—it is like selling your right arm while keeping your left. It does not make any sense.’
   Joe Wilcox, analyst at Jupiter Research, said Microsoft is late in realizing the formula of online advertising linked to search that has been so lucrative for Google. Microsoft last week launched its MSN adCenter that seeks to mimic the Google scheme.
   ‘Competition between Google and Microsoft isn’t new, just the increasing number of news stories, particularly following last week’s official launch of MSN adCenter,’ Wilcox said.
   He said that ‘Google is to Microsoft what Microsoft was to IBM in the early 1980s,’ with Google more attuned to the future, moving to capture the consumer shift to more functions online.
   ‘Google doesn’t make an Office suite, nor an operating system. Google doesn’t compete in any of Microsoft’s core desktop markets,’ Wilcox said.
   ‘Yet Google is at the cusp—perhaps is the leading company—of another computing shift. The World Wide Web is the tidal force of that change, which
   in the late 1990s Microsoft valiantly pushed back by integrating Internet Explorer into Windows.’

‘I’ve been sold 35 television sets already this morning. People don’t have any more money and are selling everything they can,’ said Ihab Abu al-Nur, who runs a market stall in downtown Gaza City.
   ‘The economic situation is very bad, government employees are not getting paid anymore. People come to sell but they don’t buy anything,’ added the 20-year-old young trader, his dusty TV screens blaring out Egyptian films.
   Attwah Abu Azem, 54, travelled up from the refugee camp of Deir al-Balah very early to sell his satellite dish. ‘Last week, I sold my television,’ said the father of 14. Unemployed for five years, he haggles hard for a good price.
   ‘I want to sell what I have to feed my family, I don’t have a choice,’ he added, exchanging jokes and pleasantries with bystanders. ‘Soon, I’ll have to sell my children,’ he added.
   Nur is furious with the Islamists of Hamas, blaming them for crushing Western aid cuts, an ensuing economic crisis and intermittent Israeli closures on the Gaza Strip—imposed since the movement first took office in March.
   The European Union, formerly the biggest donor to the Palestinian Authority, and the United States have ended direct aid because of Hamas’s refusal to recognise Israel, renounce violence or abide by previous peace agreements.
   Israel, refusing to deal with what it considers a terrorist outfit, has imposed its own sanctions, withholding around 60 million dollars a month in customs duties on imported goods owed to the Palestinian Authority.
   As a result, none of the 160,000 civil servants and security personnel on the government payroll have been paid for two months, affecting the livelihoods of around one million people, or a quarter of all local Palestinians.
   Last week, a World Bank report warned that the Palestinian Authority may cease to function and security discipline collapse if government employees continue to go without salaries for much longer.
   ‘It’s Hamas who has destroyed everything. They promised us ‘change and reform’. The only change I can see is that there is no more money, gas or petrol,’ said Nur, open about his allegiance to the former ruling Fatah party.
   His brother, Iyad, with his neatly trimmed beard, shakes his head in disapproval. ‘We will live and overcome everything. If need be, we won’t eat anymore but we wont’ give way,’ he said, in defence of his beloved Hamas.
   Be that as it may, Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas heads Sunday to Russia and the European parliament, on a desperate mission to woo back foreign aid into the empty coffers of the boycotted Hamas government.
   His trip will seek to capitalise on agreement by the four sponsors of the stalled Middle East peace process to establish a temporary trust fund which would enable donors to supply aid without having to deal directly with Hamas.
   In the market alleyways, stall holders shout themselves hoarse to attract business, as children elbow through with their wares such as chewing-gum and socks tucked under arm, amid the endless haggling between sellers and buyers.

Sierra Leone announced Saturday a ban on all chicken imports in a bid to prevent the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu from spreading to the west African country.
   The virus is already present in at least four countries in the region: Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.
   In a statement broadcast on national radio, the interior ministry declared: ‘The importation into Sierra Leone of chicken and chicken products including eggs is banned forthwith.’
   The statement said the ban was intended ‘to protect citizens’ from the H5N1 virus, which has killed more than 100 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003.
   The ministry also noted that it had ‘reliably learnt’ that certain businesses were planning to bring in chicken products illegally by road.

Economic ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will gather in Manila Monday for a three day meeting with economic integration and trade issues topping the agenda.
   The meeting was to have taken place on the central Philippine resort island of Boracay, but was cancelled at the last minute when tropical storm Chanchu ripped through the Philippines on Friday, leaving 32 dead.
   ‘We had wanted to give the ministers a relaxed atmosphere for their annual informal brainstorming and strategy-setting session,’ Philippine Trade Secretary, Peter Favila, said in a statement Sunday.
   ‘But when Chanchu hit we thought it best to move the meeting to Manila.’
   Favila said the meeting will cover issues of ‘intra-ASEAN economic integration and integration with free trade agreement partners.’ The ministers are expected to discuss progress towards implementing an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea.
   Philippine trade department officials said earlier that an agreement could be signed at the close of the three-day
   meeting.
   Details of the ASEAN-South Korea FTA have yet to be finalized and it is not known what products will be covered or when the agreement will take effect.
   South Korea and ASEAN signed an agreement last December to start phasing in a free-trade agreement from July this year.

The Australian government indicated Sunday it would consider taking back nuclear waste from countries which buy its uranium under a system known as ‘nuclear fuel leasing’.
   Prime Minister John Howard is expected to discuss the issue, which aims to limit the possibility of spent fuel being used in weapons, with US President George W. Bush and other officials during a visit to Washington this week.
   ‘This concept is just developing and, obviously, there’s a lot more work to be done in terms of how the overall life cycle is managed of nuclear fuel,’ Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile said Sunday.
   ‘Obviously, there’ll be a wide range of views, but we need to keep an open mind on all these issues if we expect to extract benefit from selling the produce (uranium),’ Vaile told commercial television.
   Howard has said he is interested in the proposal but added that Australia, which has the world’s biggest uranium reserves, had not yet been asked to implement the plan.

HC order for AB Bank
   The High Court passed an ad-interim order restraining the AB Bank Ltd from discussing the retirement and election of directors in the annual general meeting of the bank till the hearing and/or disposal of the matter and also fixed a date for hearing on June 12. The bank informed that Faisal M Khan and Sajedur Seraj, directors of the bank, submitted an application to the High Court Division of the Supreme Court regarding election of directors in the 24th AGM of the bank scheduled to be held on June 11.
   
   Profit
   As per audited accounts as on December 31, 2005, the Safko Spinning Mills Ltd reported net profit of Tk 52.6 lakh with earning per share of Tk 3.29.
   Agrani Insurance Co Ltd reported net profit of Tk 89.2 lakh with EPS of Tk 5.94.
   Square Textile reported net profit of Tk 25.55 crore with EPS of Tk 8.38.
   
   Loss
   As per audited accounts as on December 31, 2005, Aziz Pipes reported net loss of Tk 7.74 crore with negative earning per share of Tk 159.54.
   German Bangla Food reported net loss of Tk 47.4 lakh with a negative EPS of Tk 0.95.
   
   Dividend
   First Lease International Ltd has recommended 20
   per cent stock dividend (1B:5) for the year 2005.
   The annual general meeting of the company is scheduled
   to be held at BIAM Auditorium at New Eskaton in Dhaka on June 21.
   
   Trade resumption
   Trading of the shares of Bangladesh Lamps Ltd and Reliance Insurance resumes today after Record Date.
   
   Trade suspension
   Trading of the shares of BATBC remains suspended today on record date.
   
   Transaction
   Romo Rouf Chowdhury, one of the sponsors of Bank Asia, has reported his intention to buy 9,000 shares of the bank at prevailing market price through stock exchange within the next 30 working days.
   
   Paid up shares increased
   Paid up shares of Square Textiles Ltd has been increased by 38,09,988 bonus shares (12.5 per cent bonus of 3,04,79,900 shares) as the scrip has been allowed to trade as ex-benefits with effect from May 14. Now the total paid up shares of the company is 3,42,89,888.
   Paid up shares of Premier Leasing International Ltd has been increased by 2,77,307 bonus shares (10 per cent bonus of 27,73,072 shares) as the scrip is allowed to trade as ex-benefits with effect from May 14. Now the total paid up shares of the company is 30,50,379.
   Source: DSE, CSE

Bangladeshi seafood at Brussels fair
Bangladeshi seafood items displayed at the European Seafood Exposition in the Belgian capital of Brussels from May 9 to 11 earned much appreciation and praises of the visitors. A total of 15 Bangladeshi frozen seafood exporters under the guidance of Export Promotion Bureau exposed the Bangladeshi seafood items at ‘ready to cook’ and ‘ready to eat’ stages to a large number of international visitors, especially the European buyers, during the 3-day ESE fair. They said the visitors in the fair showed their keen interests towards the Bangladeshi seafood products.
— BSS

Govt to protect consumers right
The government has taken initiative to protect consumers’ interest by enacting law soon, Commerce Minister Hafizuddin Ahmed said. The minister told a delegation of Consumers Association of Bangladesh that met him at his office that no trader would be allowed to make high profit. It will be also possible to check adulteration when the law is enacted, he added. The minister said the draft bill providing for protecting the interest of the consumers was under scrutiny by the cabinet.
— UNB

Development of Mongla Port demanded
The Mongla Port Preservation and Development Action Committee placed 16-point demands including immediate dredging at the channel, full-fledged operation of Momgla EPZ, establishing deep sea-port at Akram Point, and completing Padma Bridge at Maoa point and Khanjahan Ali Airport. The committee general secretary Abdur Razzaq Mallick made the demands at a press conference in the city Sunday.
— New Age