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Tailoring shop owners said the nearly four-fold increase in the value added tax on their income is set to ruin the industry already facing disparate competition from the increased sales of low-price readymade clothes trickled out of export oriented garments industries.
   The government in the current budget has increased the VAT from 4.5 per cent to 15 per cent on the bills of dress makers.
   ‘The high rate of VAT on a struggling industry is not only unjustified, but also indicates that the government wants the dress-making industry to be eliminated,’ said Sirajul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Dress Makers Association.
   The association groups nearly 1,000 members mainly who have tailoring shops in the metropolitan cities of the country.
   Islam argued that many of more than 5,000 tailoring shops, which are not the association members, in the metropolitan cities would feel the impact of increased VAT.
   He said work orders in his shop had been halved in recent times compared to that of a decade ago.
   ‘Dress making business has been on decline for many years as people now prefer readymade garments, which are comparatively cheaper,’ said Siraj, who owns Orient Tailors at Ramna Bhaban—a hub of gents tailors.
   Abul Hashem, another Ramna Bhaban tailoring shop owner, said wages of tailors as well as miscellaneous overheads have increased.
   ‘Increased expenditure and decreased orders have pushed up per unit production cost that has forced us to raise cost of dress making,’ said Hashem. ‘Decades old dressmakers are now thinking of closing down their business due to contentious loss and downslide.
   Almost every dressmaker in the city echoed Hashem, saying that the quantity of their work orders had declined in recent years but expenditure increased.
   ‘Young people were the largest segment of our clients but most of them now prefer branded shirts and trousers,’ said Jasim Uddin of Bengal Tailors.
   Pointing out the reason of the bad shape of their industry, he said ‘Imported Chinese dresses are also comparatively cheaper.’
   At present, the dressmakers mainly depend on making suits as the young people prefer readymade shirts and trousers, he added.
   Dress makers urged upon the government to look into the matter and help them to continue with the age old industry.

Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman on Saturday said power and energy crisis was creating obstacle on the way of targeted economic growth of the country.
   The country can achieve two per cent more economic growth if sufficient energy and power supply can be ensured, he said while inaugurating a project for irrigation using solar power at Kumrakhali-Fultala village in Barguna sadar.
   The Tk 38 lakh solar irrigation system project of the Resource Development Foundation was financed by the Mutual Trust Bank while Rahim Afroz provided the technical cooperation.
   Eighty three farmers through 48 solar panels worth Tk 11.48 lakh will lift about eight lakh litres of water by using water pumps run by solar power for irrigating 40 acres of land everyday.
    Besides the irrigation cost, the rest of the amount was spent for seed bed, labour, cultivation, plantation, fertilisation, pesticides.
   The solar irrigation project will bring down the overall cultivation cost to one-fifth, sources said.
   Speaking on the occasion the BB governor emphasised on finding and developing eco-friendly and cost effective alternative energy resource and technology.
   ‘Finding and successfully using low-cost, environment friendly alternative energy source is a must for our sustainable national development,’ he said.
   Atiur also stressed on introducing regional potentiality based rural banking by changing mindset for balanced regional economic development in the country.
   He reminded that the government during the current fiscal year will distribute agricultural loan of Tk 12,000 crore and the central bank’s policy in this regard will be announced on July 24.
   The BB governor also laid the foundation of a 9-storied office building of RDF at Police Line Road of Barguna town.
    The ceremony, presided over by RDF president Imranul Huq Chowdhury, was also addressed among others by Awami League lawmakers Dhirendra Devnath Shamvu and Golam Sabur Tulu, BB deputy governor Murshid Kuli Khan, Barguna municipal mayor Shahjahan Mia and upazila chairman Abdul Khalek.
   Senior officials of Mitual Trust Bank, NCC Bank, Shahjalal Islami Bank, Rupali Bank, Rahim Afroz Limited and district administration were present on the occasion.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange had a tumultuous ride in the past week with the general index declining by 1.91 per cent and turnover going down by a whopping 33 per cent as the stock regulator squeezed loans for investors and heightened monitoring of credit disbursement amid rumours of more regulatory measures.
   The market witnessed a bumpy ride throughout the week as the investors felt nervous amid rumours that the Securities and Exchange Commission would further curtail margin loans after the commission’s decision on lowering margin loan ratio to 1:1 from 1:1.5 had come into effect on the weeks first trading day on Sunday.
   The DSE benchmark general index closed the week at 6309.44 points, down by 123.06 points, or 1.91 per cent, from the previous week’s closing.
   The broader all shares price index was down by 96.95 points, or 1.81 per cent, to close at 5249.31 points.
   The weekly turnover at the country’s premier bourse declined by 33.11 per cent to Tk 7,244.22 crore from the previous week’s Tk 10,829.42 crore.
   The DSE, which saw its general index rising every trading day in the first week of July, started negatively on the first day of the past week when the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision on lowering the margin loans came into force. The regulator took the move to rein in a huge surge of liquidity on the capital market after the beginning of the new financial year.
   But the index gained nearly 1 per cent or 76 points in the next two trading days.
   The Securities and Exchange Commission, however, directed 26 brokerage houses and 31 merchant banks to submit statements of their 50 largest investors on Wednesday, the fourth trading day of the week, to make sure the brokerage houses and merchant banks were properly following margin lending rules. A rumour broke out the same day that the stock regulator would further squeeze margin loans.
   The move, however, resulted in a fall in share prices on the day while a volatile trading day on Thursday saw general index inching up by 2 points.
   Capital market analyst Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, who teaches finance in Dhaka University, said the market had been volatile in the past week lowering of the margin loan ratio.
   Besides, market operators said, the SEC move to look into the transaction of top investors also caused the fall in share prices.
   Former DSE president Rakibur Rahman said the investors had been jittery as rumours plagued the market. ‘Investors are confused whether they should buy or sell shares at this point,’ he said on Thursday.
   He said that rumours concerning the National Board of Revenue move to impose gain taxes on individual investors and the SEC move to curtail loans panicked many investors. ‘These are rumours. Investors should make investments based on company fundamentals and no rumours.’
   The share prices of major sectors such as banks, non-banking financial institutions, life insurance and general insurance companies declined by 1.90 per cent, 2.22 per cent, 4.73 per cent and 0.44 per cent.
   Titas Gas topped the turnover list with shares worth Tk 538 crore. The week’s other turnover leaders were Beximco Ltd, BRAC Bank, AB Bank, National Bank Limited, Pubali Bank, LankaBangla Finance, People’s Leasing and Financial Services, BSRM Steels Limited and One Bank Limited.

Two salinity-tolerant varieties of T-aman paddy innovated by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute are expected to be released very soon.
   The director (administration) of the BRRI, AKG Md Enamul Haque, told BSS Saturday that the varieties — BRRI-53 and BRRI-54 — might be released within one month or two.
   He said field level evaluations of the BRRI and Seed Certification Agency had been completed successfully and the varieties would be placed at the National Seed Board for final approval for cultivation at farmers’ level.
   Earlier, the BRRI had developed two salinity- tolerant varieties — BRRI-40 and BRRI-41—, Enamul said adding that the lifetime of the latest varieties was two weeks less than that of the previous ones.
   He said production rate, salinity-tolerant capacity and other characteristics of the new varieties were identical with the earlier varieties.
   The immediate past director (research) of the BRRI MA Salam said the production rate of BRRI-40 and BRRI-41 was 4.5 tonnes per hectare. The lifetime of BRRI-40 and BRRI-41 is 145 days and 148 days respectively, he added.
   Salam said farmers of the costal region were losing their interest in cultivating existing varieties because of their long lifetime. After harvesting of BRRI-40 and BRRI-41, farmers do not get enough time for shrimp cultivation, he added.
   Taking this into consideration, he said, the BRRI has developed the two varieties.
   The newly developed T-aman varieties are a one step forward in the history of the country’s salinity-tolerant varieties innovation, he added.
   He said the varieties were expected to contribute significantly to boost aman production ensuring further food security in the country.
   Salam said, ‘We expect the latest BRRI varieties would gain popularity among the farmers because of its short lifetime.’
   He said farmers could minimise their losses by cultivating of the varieties as those were less vulnerable to natural calamities due to the short lifetime.
   BRRI sources said the country’s coastal region had nearly 10 lakh hectares for paddy cultivation.
   They said the newly developed salinity-tolerant varieties of aman paddy would help greatly to bring the vast tract of land under cultivation for further boosting rice production in the country.

An Indian court has ruled that Hindu gods cannot deal in stocks and shares, reports said Saturday, after an application for trading accounts to be set up in their names.
   Two judges at the Bombay High Court on Friday rejected a petition from a private religious trust to open accounts in the names of five deities.
   ‘Trading in shares on the stock market requires certain skills and expertise and to expect this from deities would not be proper,’ judges PB Majumdar and Rajendra Sawant said, according to Indian newspapers.
   The trust, owned by the former royal family of Sangli, in western Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, brought the case after successfully securing income tax cards and savings accounts for the deities.
   National Securities Depository Limited argued that it would be difficult to take action against the gods in the event of irregularities.
   ‘Gods and goddesses are meant to be worshipped in temples, not dragged into commercial activities like share trading,’ the judges said.

Fishery experts from 10 Asian countries including Malaysia and Philippines, along with UN professionals will gather in New Delhi to discuss ways to increase fish cultivation and trade from tomorrow.
   Experts from Food and Agriculture Organisation under the aegis of United Nations and INFOFISH, an intergovernmental organisation based in Malaysia, would be deliberating on improving commercial utilisation of fish during a five-day workshop.
   ‘Various issues like traceability, aquaculture certification impacting trade, private standards, antibiotic and veterinary drug residues in aquaculture products are likely to be discussed during the workshop,’ the commerce ministry of India, one of the co-organisers of the workshop, said Friday.
   Besides, the experts would also discuss methodology for post-harvest fish losses, organic issues and current international trade issues in marine products.
   The discussion on antibiotic and veterinary drug residues in aquaculture products assumes significance as the EU recently imposed strict testing norms for import of marine products from India.
   All the participating countries in the workshop are either from the ASEAN or the SAARC bloc. Besides India, they include Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal.
   India is also a member of INFOFISH that provides marketing support for fish producers and exporters in the Asia-Pacific-a region which includes some of the largest fishing nations in the world.

A two-day exhibition titled Bangladesh Clothing Show 2010 will begin on September 27 in the United Kingdom with a view to expand the country’s apparel market.
   A key component of the exhibition will be to demonstrate Bangladesh suppliers’ active commitment to ethical and standards’ compliance regarding elimination of child labour, empowerment of women and implementation of ecological working practices and processes, said a press release.
   The clothing show will showcase products of nearly 80 of the country’s most innovative and successful garment manufacturers, textile dyers, printers and finishers, buying houses or agents and logistics providers.
   Alliant event management in Bangladesh and GenX UK Limited are jointly organising the show.

The government has appointed Md Fayekuzzaman as the managing director of Investment Corporation of Bangladesh recently.
   Prior to this appointment, he was deputy managing director of Agrani Bank, a state-owned commercial bank, said a news release.
   Fayekuzzaman joined ICB as a senior principal officer in 1985 and worked there for about 22 years.
   He was made general manager of ICB in 2001 and DMD of Agrani Bank in 2007.

After a rough start to earnings season, US stocks face a tidal wave of corporate results next week amid growing worries the US economic recovery is slowing.
   Stocks fell off a cliff Friday after a sagging consumer confidence index and mixed earnings spooked investors.
   ‘What was looking like a nice week turned into a huge sell-off,’ said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research.
   Detrick noted that the unfortunate combination of disappointing earnings and troublesome economic data ‘was all it took for the bears to take control.’
   Over the week the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.98 per cent, to finish Friday at 10,097.90 points.
   The tech-rich Nasdaq composite index gave back 0.79 per cent at 2,179.05 points.
   The S&P 500 index, a broad measure of the markets, dropped 1.21 per cent to 1,064.88 points.
   ‘Nonetheless, after a nearly five per cent jump last week—a 1.2 per cent drop for the week isn’t all that bad,’ Detrick said.
   Aluminum giant Alcoa, the first Dow member to report financial results, got the ball rolling Tuesday with a swing into profit in the second quarter and a brighter outlook on global demand for the metal.
   Investors cheered, sending the Dow into a triple-digit gain and driving the markets to the only strong rally all week.
   The major indices finished lower Thursday after seven consecutive days of gains that had lifted the blue-chip Dow about seven per cent.
   But investors ran for cover Friday after worrying US bank results and the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index plummeted in July to its lowest reading in 11 months.
   The Dow dived 2.52 per cent, the Nasdaq lost 3.11 per cent and the S&P 500 shed 2.88 per cent.
   ‘Consumers remain worried about many things, including enacted and potential policy changes, high unemployment, weak house prices, lost wealth, and small raises. Also depressing sentiment is limited access to credit,’ said Scott Hoyt at Moody’s Economy.com.
   The week ahead will highlight the state of the distressed housing market, where prices continue to fall after the market began to collapse about three years ago. Reports are due on June housing starts and building permits, on Tuesday, and existing-home sales on Thursday.
   Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to provide two days of semi-annual testimony on monetary policy to congress, to the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday and the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Thursday.
   In minutes of the latest Fed policy-setting meeting published this week, the central bank lowered its 2010 economic growth forecast to 3-3.5 per cent from the 3.2-3.7 per cent range predicted just months ago.

Hong Kong on Saturday passed its first minimum wage law, a controversial issue that has divided the city’s business sector and labour groups for more than a decade.
   Lawmakers hailed the passage of the bill — secured after more than 40 hours of heated debate — as a historic moment for Hong Kong, where policymaking is often heavily influenced by the powerful business elite.
   Officials said the law will take effect next year, and a government-appointed task group is expected to propose a minimum wage level in the coming months.
   But pro-democracy legislators, whose numerous attempts to have the bill amended were blocked by their pro-government counterparts, said there were many loopholes in the new law.
   Lee Cheuk-yan, lawmaker and a leader of Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, said: ‘No doubt it is a historic moment for Hong Kong.’
   ‘We have now said goodbye to an unfair practice in a capitalist economy and acknowledged the fact that workers should be rewarded for their hard work,’ he told the AFP.
   Recent surveys showed that many workers at large retail chains are only paid between two and three US dollars an hour.
   Lee said it was ‘regretful’ that the legal framework for setting the minimum wage will be largely controlled by the government.
   Under the law, all members of the task group will be picked by the city’s chief executive. The legislature can only approve or reject the wage level proposed by the group, but cannot make any amendment.
   The law will require the task group to review the wage level once every two years, instead of once a year as proposed by trade unions.
   ‘We will have to use public pressure to campaign for a fair minimum wage level, since under the legal framework the control will be largely in the hands of the government,’ Lee said.
   Unions have pushed for the minimum wage to be fixed at 33 Hong Kong dollars ($4.2) an hour,
   saying anything less would not cover basic expenses with living costs having risen sharply in recent months.
   Many countries already have minimum wage legislation in place, with the hourly rates in New York and London set between $7.25 and $8.80.
   Hong Kong’s minimum-wage proposal had faced stiff opposition from some of its largest employers, with some threatening large-scale layoffs if the change was introduced.
   Michael Chan, chairman of fast-food giant Cafe de Coral — who was ranked by Forbes magazine as the 35th richest man in Hong Kong in 2009 — has said his company might issue a profit warning if the hourly rate proposed by the unions became law.

The makers of the world’s cheapest car, the Nano, said on Friday it was raising the price of the snub-nosed four-door vehicle as it announced plans to ramp up production.
   Launched in 2009 with a price tag as low as 1,23,000 rupees ($2,629) by Tata Motors, the car has been pitched at India’s aspiring middle classes, many of whom now travel on two-wheelers.
   A spokesman for Tata Motors said the price for the Nano—billed as the world’s cheapest car—would have to increase for new customers by three to four percent due to a ‘very sharp increase in input costs.’
   ‘It is a very nominal increase given the rise in raw material costs,’ the spokesman told AFP, asking not to be named in line with company policy.
   Carmakers in India have been steadily increasing prices this year to offset higher raw material costs such as steel and rubber.
   However, Tata Motors said the company would keep the price unchanged for the first 1,00,000 Nano customers as promised when the car was first displayed in 2008.
   As a result of production problems, Tata has so far delivered a less-than-expected 45,000 Nanos to customers.
   It was forced to shift production to India’s western state of Gujarat after a violent land dispute in Singur in communist-ruled West Bengal obliged it to scrap in 2008 its virtually complete Nano plant.
   Now, however, Tata said it expected to be able to bump up production of the Nano as its new Gujarat plant had become operational ahead of schedule.
   ‘It is very good news for us, it has been completed in just 14 months,’ the spokesman said.
   The company will also continue producing the Nano at a factory in the northern state of Uttarakhand to help clear the backlog of orders.
   The Nano has sparked a race among global carmakers to create other low-cost cars for the Indian and other emerging markets.

American International Group Inc agreed to pay $725 million to settle a long-running securities fraud lawsuit led by three Ohio public pension funds, in one of the largest class action settlements in US history.
   AIG, which is nearly 80 per cent owned by the US government, would pay $175 million within 10 days of preliminary court approval of the settlement with a class of AIG shareholders.
   The company may fund the remaining $550 million through a stock offering or other means, including cash, when it decides it is commercially reasonable to make such an offering.
   The litigation, which began in October 2004, involved allegations that AIG engaged in accounting fraud, bid-rigging and stock price manipulation, said Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray, who represented the Ohio funds.
   The settlement resolves allegations of AIG’s wide-ranging fraud from October 1999 to April 2005 and brings the expected recovery for AIG shareholders to about $1 billion, Cordray said.
   AIG, which was bailed out in September 2008 from near-collapse with a $182.3 billion taxpayer-funded rescue package, said it was ‘pleased to have resolved this matter.’
   ‘This settlement ends a long-standing lawsuit, allowing AIG to continue to focus its efforts on paying back taxpayers and restoring the value of our franchise for the benefit of all our stakeholders,’ spokesman Mark Herr said.
   The class action suit in Manhattan federal court was led by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio and the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund.
   As part of the overall case, the Ohio funds previously announced a $72 million settlement with General Reinsurance Corp, a $97.5 million settlement with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and a $115 million settlement with former AIG chief executive Maurice ‘Hank’ Greenberg, other AIG executives and related corporate entities.
   Cordray said together this was the tenth-largest securities class action settlement in US history.
   It comes a day after the US Securities and Exchange Commission reached a $550 million settlement in a case against Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
   That case stemmed from Goldman’s marketing and packaging of a collateralised debt obligation that turned toxic during the financial crisis.
   AIG’s shares closed down 4.7 per cent at $35.64 on the New York Stock Exchange.

India and China have clinched two separate contracts to build railway lines and communication links in Sri Lanka, the government said Friday.
   Indian Railway Construction International Ltd has won an $86.5 million deal to reconstruct rail lines in the island’s northern region of Wanni, a former war zone, the government said in a statement.
   The northern rail-track was destroyed during the 37-year ethnic conflict that ended in May last year when government forces defeated the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.
   The government also awarded a $290-million contract to China National Machinery Import and Export Corp to build a railway line in the south of the island, which was largely unaffected by the ethnic strife.
   ‘The contract will also include signals, telecommunications, ticketing systems and their maintenance,’ the government statement said.

Sheltech Pvt Ltd signed a memorandum of understanding with Kuppss Collaboration of Thailand with a view to consulting design and service for the hospitality and building of the real estate company and its sister concerns in Dhaka on Saturday.
   Sheltech managing director Toufiq M Seraj and Kuppss Collaboration chief executive Kwanchai Phalajivin signed the memo, said a news release.
   Sheltech chairman Kutubuddin Ahmed, development director Tanvir Ahmed and technical adviser Chowdhury Jamal Ashraf were present on the occasion, among others.

The Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association held its 2009 annual general meeting at its conference room in Dhaka on Saturday.
   The newly elected BPGMEA president, Shahedul Islam, presided over the meeting, said a news release.
   The meeting was addressed by BPGMEA outgoing president Ferdous Wahed, former presidents Md Yusuf Ashraf, KM Alamgir and vice-president KM Iqbal Hossain, among others.
   Newly elected general secretary Mosaddequr Rahman Nannu presented a resume of BPGMEA activities in 2009 and senior vice-president Shamim Ahmed extended vote of thanks to all.

Eastern Bank Limited signed a memorandum of understanding with some student counselling agencies at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka recently.
   EBL deputy managing director and consumer banking head Mamoon Mahmood Shah signed the memo with the heads of the 45 student counselling agencies, said a news release.
   Under the memo, students going abroad for higher study through the agencies will enjoy banking services including opening of student files, foreign DD/TT, education loan.
   Cards head Nazeem Anwar Choudhury, student banking manager Mohammed Hossain, Banani branch manager Sharmin Ahmed, Dhanmondi branch manager Adel Islam and other high officials of the bank were present on the occasion.