The National Board of Revenue is set to start a fresh tax survey from July 25 to net at least 4 lakh more taxpayers within the next year, complying with the wishes of the finance minister.
   At first, there will be tax survey in 15 places across the country as pilot project. Later, the survey will be expanded to other places of the country.
   The initial tax survey will take place at Uttara, Nikunja, Bonosri, Basundhara-Baridhara Project Area, Savar, Dohar, Nowabganj, Keraniganj of Dhaka district, Louhojong of Munshiganj district, Patia, Sitakunda, Satkania, Hathajari, Mirershwarai of Chittagong district, and Bianibazar of Sylhet.
   This survey will continue till September of this year. A total of 17 teams will work for the tax survey with each team having six inspectors. One Joint Commissioner will supervise a team.
   ‘After analyzing the results that will come from the pilot project, the NBR will go for country-wide tax survey,’ an NBR high official told the news agency on Tuesday.
   The government is in a desperate need of enhancing the revenue collection as the sources are shrinking, particularly due to the worldwide economic crunch, while public spending is increasing.
   The NBR official said that they had already communicated with the REHAB and Dhaka City Corporation to have lists of house, flat, plot and land owners to achieve a good result from the survey.
   ‘We hope to get the lists within a short time. We think, we will be able to start the pilot project by July 25.’
   He also mentioned that the NBR would gradually seek lists from other city corporations of the country to identify the eligible taxpayers.
   Finance minister AMA Muhith in his recent visit to NBR said the size of tax evasion was huge in Bangladesh although other countries of the world are also not free from this culture. ‘It’s a shame for the nation as a huge number of people eligible to pay taxes are still out of the tax net. We’ll have to come out of this situation.’
   From March 2007 the NBR conducted a tax survey in the Dhaka city that continued till August 2008. Later, the survey was extended to Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna, Rajshahi and Barisal divisional cities and Rangpur Municipality. From that survey, NBR netted 65,000 new taxpayers.
   Forty-eight teams were engaged in the tax survey covering businesses and professionals. Of them, 20 teams conducted the survey in the capital city and found 57 per cent new taxpayers in businesses in the city’s posh areas and business hubs in old Dhaka.
   Currently, only around 800,000 people are paying taxes although the number of holders of taxpayer’s identification number is about 2.3 million.
   The finance minister, from the very beginning of his taking office as custodian of the exchequer, has put emphasis on increasing the number of taxpayers.

Vehicles of the fourth largest automaker of the world Ford were formally launched in the country on Monday night.
   Exclusive distributor of Ford the AG automobile, a sister concern of renowned Anwar Group of Industries, introduced the Americans cars in Bangladesh, a news release said.
   Commerce minister Faruk Khan formally launched the new 2010 model cars of Ford as chief guest at an inaugural ceremony at Fords centre of Uttara in Dhaka.
   Health minister AFM Ruhal Haque, US ambassador to Bangladesh James F Moriarty attended the occasion as the guests of honour while former president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries and managing director of Anwar Group Hossain Khaled made the welcome speech.
   Regional Head of Ford David Westerman also spoke on the occasion.
   At the launching ceremony, the commerce minister said the business interest of an automobile giant of the world-like Ford in Bangladesh proved that the country’s economy is booming.
   The US ambassador wished success of the intervention of the Ford in Bangladesh and also hoped that this new door of business would help further strengthening the trade and commerce relations between Bangladesh and the USA.
   Hossain Khalid said the new fuel efficient high performance diesel vehicles were very environment friendly which would be imported with warranty.
   AG Automobiles will introduce a wide range of new 2010 model Ford varieties including Ranger Pickup, Everest SUV and Focus Cars in Bangladesh.
   American multinational corporation, the Ford Motor Company, based in Dearborn of Michigan in the US, was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated in June 16, 1903. Ford now encompasses many brands, including Lincoln and Mercury of the US and Volvo of Sweden.

Thailand is persuading its investors to invest more in some of Bangladesh’s key manufacturing sectors to take advantage of the cheap labour as well as the current political stability, and to enhance the trade between the countries.
   This was revealed by Chalermpol Thanchitt, the Thai ambassador, on Tuesday while briefing reporters at his office on the planned three-day trade fair, ‘The Destination Thailand Fair 2009’, scheduled to begin in the embassy’s premises on July 16.
   The fair is being co-organized by the Thai Embassy, the Thai Trade Centre in Dhaka, the Tourism Authority of Thailand and Thai Airways International with the support of other partners.
   The three-day fair is going to focus primarily on efforts to encourage Bangladeshi tourists to visit Thailand.
   Dwelling on the bilateral trade ties, Thanchitt said that the size of the two-way trade was $600 million last year. The balance of trade was heavily in Thailand’s favour as Bangladesh exported goods worth only $20 million.
   Responding to a query about the reason for his government’s initiative, the Thai ambassador said, ‘Our government is persuading more Thai businessmen to invest in Bangladesh to take the advantage of the cheap labour and stable political environment.’
   He told the media that Thai businessmen had already invested about $100 million in some important manufacturing sectors in Bangladesh, and planned to increase their operation to manufacturing buses, cement, electric cables, offset paper, mobile-networking items and poultry farming under joint-venture schemes.
   Responding to a query on the number of Bangladeshi visitors to Thailand, he said that last year some 80,000 people, mostly tourists, went to Thailand, of whom 12,000 went to Bamrungrad Hospital.
   He said that at present about 300 Bangladeshis apply for Thai visas everyday.
   In reply to another question he said the Thai government finances the technical and training sectors in Bangladesh.
   They offer some kind of training programme for government officials and the private sector to see how Thailand developed tourism.
   He further said that about 100 scholarships are given by Thailand to Bangladeshis every year.
   The Thai Trade Centre’s director, Usa Wijarun, and general manager of the Thai Airways International, Kitipong Manityakal, were also present at the press briefing.

Technical glitch in the trading system on Tuesday delayed the closing of stocks trading at the Dhaka Stock Exchange, which finished lower on the day.
   The DSE general index lost 48.89 points, or 1.65 per cent, to close at 2,917.07, while its blue chips index, DSE20, shed 29.75 points, or 1.26 per cent, to finish at 2,329.41.
   ‘The bourse halted the share trading at 1:30pm due to technical glitch in its trading server,’ said a senior official of the DSE.
   He said the DSE wanted to resume the market for a period of 2:00pm-2:30pm to make up the lost time, but failed as the system was not restored by that time.
   Later the market resumed at 3:45pm and continued till 4:00pm, he said.
   Usually, DSE trading session starts at 10:00am and continues till 2:00pm.
   A DSE stockbroker said sellers dominated the day’s trading as investors remained worried after a volatile trend in the last week and a downtrend this week.
   Of the total 227 issues traded on Tuesday, 45 advanced, 179 declined and three remained unchanged.
   Turnover at the DSE dropped to Tk 561.65 crore from the Monday’s Tk 670.61 crore.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange on Tuesday inaugurated the upgraded version of its software with 34 new features to make trading activities smoother and faster.
   Nasiruddin Ahmed Chowdhury, president of the CSE, at a news briefing held at the CSE conference room on the occasion, expressed optimism that upgradating of the Vector Trading Software would help boost up trading volume significantly.

Frozen food exporters have sought the government’s assistance including cash and fiscal support to help the sector overcome the current financial crisis, difficulties in exports and loss incurred due to recent cyclone.
   A delegation of Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association at a meeting with the commerce minister, Faruk Khan, at his office on Tuesday, requested him also to take necessary initiative to implement the government’s decision to provide assistance to this sector from the stimulus package.
   The association leaders demanded that the government should arrange a two-year moratorium on payment of interests on loan taken by the frozen food exporters and create a segregated fund of Tk 500 crore to provide them with loans at lower interests.

A Taipei-based motorbike company showed interest in setting up a factory at Uttara Export Processing Zone of Nilphamari, investing $30 million.
   The company, however, wants access to local market besides exporting their products.
   Uttara EPZ sources informed that a team of Taiwanese company, LSI Industries Limited, led by its director Russell Woe along with parliiamnet member Asaduzzaman Noor, visited the Uttara EPZ recently.
   After the visit, the director of the company said his company would set up the factory that could be in 60 plots out of total 202 plots of the EPZ.
   This company, if go ahead with its plan, will bring the single largest investment in the Uttara EPZ.
   Established in 1996 near Nilphamari, Uttara EPZ so far does not see any big investment, local industry people said.

The Indian government is considering injecting funds into ailing national carrier Air India by way of equity and debt as an initial public offer is unlikely at present, the civil aviation minister said on Tuesday.
   State-owned National Aviation Co of India Ltd, which operates Air India, has been struggling amid high costs of operations and has sought a government bailout.
   Minister Praful Patel said in a statement to parliament that the accumulated loss of the company at end March was about 72 billion rupees ($1.5b) and government help was needed.
   ‘The government, in the past, has never assisted Air India, unlike governments in other countries assisted their airlines when in difficulty,’ Patel said, adding that an initial public offer could not be possible amid negative market conditions.
   ‘It is in this background that an equity infusion and soft loan by the government as a measure of softening the adverse financial situation is contemplated,’ he said.

Mobile phone operator Grameenphone, the highest income taxpayer, has submitted the income tax return online in Large Tax Payers Unit of the National Board of Revenue, a news release said.
   Finance minister AMA Muhith inaugurated the online income tax return submission process of LTU recently.
   Earlier Md Alauddin, commissioner of taxes, LTU, along with his team visited Grameenphone and demonstrated the newly introduced online income tax return submission process on the LTU website.

Bangladesh Shilpa Bank has realised loans of Tk 90.74 crore in cash during fiscal year 2008-09.
   Of the total amount, Tk 8.83 crore was realised from classified and while Tk 13.72 crore from write-off loans, said a news release on Tuesday.
   Managing director of the bank Md Mizanur Rahman disclosed this Monday at a meeting of board of directors of the Bank.
   He said the bank sanctioned loans of Tk 53.34 crore, including long-term loans of Tk 51.21 crore, for different projects during the same period.
   Mizanur Rahman said the bank also disbursed Tk 76.70 crore including long term loans of Tk 74.62 crore for different projects during the same period.
   He hoped that on completion of these projects, employment opportunities would be created for around 1041 persons.

Kh Asadul Islam, former chief executive officer and founder of IDLC Securities Ltd., has joined City Bank as executive vice-president and head of brokerage.
   He began his career with Premium Securities Ltd, later moving to the renowned multinational investment bank Peregrine Capital Ltd, followed by a shift to the Union Capital Ltd, a news release said.

Global Insurance Limited has declared 10 per cent stock dividend to its shareholders.
   The declaration came at the ninth annual general meeting of the company held in Dhaka on Saturday.
   The meeting was presided over by the chairman of the company, AKM Shaheed Reza, a news release said.
   The meeting was told that the company registered 71 per cent increase in premium income to the year 2008 over the year 2007. The meeting unanimously approved 10 per cent stock dividend to the shareholders for the year 2008.
   In his speech the chairman thanked the shareholders for their active cooperation and wholehearted support during the year.
   Managing director ABM Nurul Haq informed the shareholders that in spite of various obstacles in the market, the company earned handsome premium income. He expressed gratitude to the shareholder for their wholehearted support and confidence upon the company.

Rahim Textile
   SEC has formed an enquiry team to enquire recent unusual trading of shares of Rahim Textile Mills Limited on the Stock Exchanges.
   National Life Insurance
   Trading of the shares of the company will remain suspended on record date today.
   Bd Thai Aluminium
   Trading of the shares of the company will be allowed only in the spot market and block/odd lot transactions will also be settled as per spot settlement cycle from today to Sunday (15.07.09 to 19.07.09). Trading of the shares of the company will remain suspended on record date on 20.07.09 for EGM.
   Therapeutics
   Trading of the shares of the company will remain suspended today as book closure will start from tomorrow for EGM.
   Bangladesh Services
   Normal trading of the shares of the company will resume today following the starting date of Book-Closure and there will be no price limit on the trading of the shares of the company for the same day.
   BGIC
   Saleh Ahmed, one of the sponsors/directors of the company, has reported his intention to sell 1,000 shares out of his total holdings of 3,457 shares of the company at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange within next 30 working days.
   Source : DSE

The federal deficit has topped $1 trillion for the first time ever and could grow to nearly $2 trillion by this fall, intensifying fears about higher interest rates, inflation and the strength of the dollar.
   The deficit has been widened by the huge sum the government has spent to ease the recession, combined with a sharp decline in tax revenues. The cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also is a major factor.
   The soaring deficit is making Chinese and other foreign buyers of US debt nervous, which could make them reluctant lenders down the road. It could also force the Treasury Department to pay higher interest rates to make US debt attractive longer-term.
   ‘These are mind-boggling numbers,’ said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at the Smith School of Business at California State University. ‘Our foreign investors from China and elsewhere are starting to have concerns about not only the value of the dollar but how safe their investments will be in the long run.’
   The Treasury Department said Monday that the deficit in June totaled $94.3 billion, pushing the total since the budget year started in October to $1.09 trillion. The administration forecasts that the deficit for the entire year will hit $1.84 trillion in October.
   Government spending is on the rise to address the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and an unemployment rate that has climbed to 9.5 per cent.
   Congress already approved a $700 billion financial bailout for banks, automakers and other sectors, and a $787 billion economic stimulus package to try to jump-start a recovery. Outlays through the first nine months of this budget year total $2.67 trillion, up 20.5 per cent from the same period a year ago.
   There is growing talk among some Obama administration officials that a second round of stimulus may eventually be necessary.
   That has many Republicans and deficit hawks worried that the US could be setting itself up for more financial pain down the road if interest rates and inflation surge. They also are raising alarms about additional spending the administration is proposing, including its plan to reform health care.
   President Barack Obama and treasury secretary Timothy Geithner have said the US is committed to bringing down the deficits once the economy and financial sector recover. The Obama administration has set a goal of cutting the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
   In the meantime, the US debt now stands at $11.5 trillion. Interest payments on the debt cost $452 billion last year — the largest federal spending category after Medicare-Medicaid, Social Security and defense.
   The overall debt is now slightly more than 80 per cent of the annual output of the entire US economy, as measured by the gross domestic product. During World War II, it briefly rose to 120 per cent of GDP.
   The debt is largely financed by the sale of Treasury bonds and bills.
   Many private economists say the administration had no choice but to take aggressive action during the financial crisis.
   ‘We have a deep recession hammering tax revenues and forcing the government to provide a lot of help to the economy,’ said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. ‘But without this help, the downturn would be even more severe.’
   History shows the dangers of assuming too soon that economic downturns have ended.
   President Franklin D Roosevelt made that mistake in 1936. Believing the Depression largely over, he sought to reduce public spending and to balance the federal budget, but that undermined a fragile recovery, pushing the economy back under water in 1937.
   Japanese leaders made a similar mistake in the 1990s when they temporarily withdrew government stimulus spending, prolonging Japan’s recession into one that lasted a full decade.
   Republicans in Congress are seizing on the deficit — and the persistence of the recession — to attack Democrats.
   ‘Washington Democrats keep borrowing and spending money we don’t have,’ said House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio.
   So far, interest rates have remained low.
   This is partly because the Federal Reserve has kept a key short-term rate at a record near zero. Also, all the economic troubles in housing and the rest of the economy have depressed demand for credit by the private sector, meaning the government’s borrowing costs are relatively low.
   The benchmark 10-year Treasury security has risen by about a percentage point in recent weeks, but analysts note it is still trading at historically low levels of around 3.35 per cent.

Singapore said Tuesday its economy grew for the first time in a year in the second quarter, suggesting the city is emerging from its worst recession and offering hope for other battered Asian economies.
   Powered by electronics and biomedical exports, the economy soared 20.4 per cent in the three months to June compared with the first quarter on a seasonally adjusted annualised basis, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said.
   A Dow Jones Newswires poll of 10 analysts had tipped an average 14.1 per cent economic expansion. It was the first quarter-on-quarter growth in five quarters.
   Gross domestic product is now expected to contract 4-6 per cent for the year, better than an earlier projection of 6-9 per cent, but the ministry warned that any recovery would be weak due to the fragile global economy.
   Trade-driven Singapore last sank into a recession in 2001 when the economy shrank 2.4 per cent, its worst slump since gaining statehood in 1965.
   It became the first Asian economy to slip into recession in the second half of last year after a financial and economic crisis that started in the United States hit demand for its exports.
   Tuesday’s data meant that Singapore is the first of the Asian countries hit by recession to release statistics pointing to a recovery.
   Compared with the previous year, however, output in the June quarter was down 3.7 per cent, indicating that the economy remained weak.
   ‘The economy is growing again,’ said David Cohen, an economist with research house Action Economics.
   ‘Growth won’t be very strong but it should remain in an upward trajectory,’ he told the AFP.
   Tuesday’s data compare with a 14.6 per cent quarter on quarter contraction in the three months to March.
   DBS Group called it a ‘stunning turnaround’ in line with its forecast.
   CIMB-GK economist Song Seng Wun said Singapore’s June quarter rebound boosts hopes that the worst is also over for China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other Asian economies affected by the global crisis.
   ‘Because Singapore has an open economy and has the highest exports to GDP ratio, its performance reflects any improvement or deterioration in global demand,’ Song said.

Twelve European companies launched a 400-billion-euro ($560b) initiative to plant huge solar farms in Africa and the Middle East to produce energy for Europe.
   The consortium says the massive proposal could provide up to 15 per cent of Europe’s electricity needs by 2050.
   Engineering giants ABB and Siemens, energy groups E.ON and RWE and financial institutions Deutsche Bank and Munich Re are among the companies which signed a protocol in Munich.
   ‘Today we have taken a step forward’ towards the project’s realisation, said Nikolaus von Bomhard, head of the reinsurance giant Munich Re, which hosted the signing.
   The Desertec Industrial Initiative would build solar-power generators from Morocco to Saudi Arabia and pump electricity to Europe via undesea cables.
   It would also provide a ‘substantial portion of the power needs of the producer countries,’ the Desertec foundation said in a statement, and transform sea water into drinking and irrigation water for local populations.
   Munich Re board member Torsten Jeworrek said the European companies involved had pledged to work ‘as equals in a sincere and fair’ manner with producer countries.
   For Jordan’s Prince Hassan ibn Talal: ‘The partnerships that will be formed across the regions as a result of the Desertec project will open a new chapter in relations between the people of the European Union, West Asia and North Africa.’
   Many details still have to be worked out however, including where to install the plants, when the power would come on and how much it would cost, potential profits, political stability in some areas and of course, financing.
   Renewable energy analyst Sebastaian Zank at West LB bank, which is not involved in the project, said it might succeed but only ‘in the very, very long term.
   ‘As long as there are no transmission networks between these two continents this is more or less a nice future fantasy,’ Zank told AFP.
   Under the protocol, a Desertec study office to be established by October will have three years to elaborate plans to create the network of solar farms and transmission networks and find the funds.
   Representatives of the Arab League and the Egyptian energy ministry also attended the protocol’s signing.
   Other companies involved are the Spanish firm ABENGOA Solar and the Algerian conglomerate Cevital along with several German banks and engineering companies.
   The Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper said in June that electricity could begin flowing to Europe within 10 years.

Turkey signed a landmark deal with four EU countries on Monday to pipe gas from the Caspian region, reducing Europe’s reliance on Russian deliveries and rivalling Moscow’s own pipeline project.
   The United States hailed the signing of the accord by the prime ministers of Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey — a milestone in the Nabucco pipeline project much delayed by lack of commitment from gas-exporting nations.
   The 3,300-kilometre (2,000-mile) conduit is supposed to become operational in 2014 at an estimated cost of 7.9 billion euros ($10.9b), but there was still lingering uncertainty over who will supply the gas.
   It is due to pump billions of cubic metres from the Caspian Sea to Austria via Turkey and the Balkans, bypassing Russia which has been accused of using gas as a weapon by cutting it off in disputes with its neighbours.
   The project ‘is of crucial importance for the EU’s and Turkey’s energy security,’ European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said at the signing ceremony.
   A statement from US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly meanwhile hailed the deal as ‘a significant milestone in achieving our shared vision of opening a new energy corridor that will bring Caspian gas to Europe.’
   Germany’s economy ministry said in a statement that the deal ‘reduces the vulnerability of European supplies’ and ‘opens a new chapter in economic relations between the EU, Turkey and the countries of the Caspian region.’
   The deal drew criticism however from environmental group Greenpeace, which urged countries to invest instead in cheaper clean energy such as wind and sun power.
   The pipeline would raise Europe’s harmful CO2 gas emissions, said Jurrien Westerhof, energy expert for Greenpeace Austria, in a statement.
   With Nabucco’s estimated cost, one could install 4,000 wind turbines and produce 8,000 megawatts of wind power, more than the total amount needed by Austrian households, he added.
   A quarter of all gas used in Europe comes from Russia, with several southern European countries depending almost exclusively on Russian supplies.
   Nabucco competes directly with Russia’s South Stream project, which will carry Russian gas through Bulgaria to Western Europe under the Black Sea.
   But ‘Russia is expected not to hinder directly or indirectly the Nabucco project,’ said Bulgarian premier Sergey Stanishev, whose country was among the hardest hit by the cut-offs last winter.

Ordinary Life and Gonogrameen policyholders of Delta Life Insurance Company will now be able to deposit their insurance premium at 56 branches and 30 SME service centres of BRAC Bank across the country.
   They also can deposit the premium at various correspondent banks’ branches located nationwide.
   A memorandum of understanding to this effect was signed between the bank and insurance company on Nationwide Collection Services in a city hotel recently, a news release said.
   BRAC Bank deputy managing director Syed Mahbubur Rahman and Delta Life Insurance additional managing director signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides.

IFIC Bank held the half-yearly managers’ conference in a city hotel on Sunday.
   Chairman of the bank Mohammad Lutfar Rahman inaugurated the conference presided over by managing director Mosharraf Hossain, a news release said.
   Deputy managing director Mohammad Abdullah, head office executives and relationship managers of 74 branches and two SME centres of the bank attended the conference.
   The performance of the branches including the targets and achievement during the first six months of the year was reviewed and the strategies for achieving the annual business targets were discussed at the conference.
   Directors Gulzar Alam Chowdhury, Aminur Rahrnan and Abu Tahir Mohammad Golam Maruf were present.