Every winter, Bangladesh produces a surplus of onions, causing prices to fall sharply to around Tk 60 per kilogramme, forcing farmers to sell below cost while large quantities rot in storage. Months later, shortages reappear, middlemen become active, imports are allowed, and prices surge again, hit
Auditors make observations on businesses' financial reports, but no regulatory actions follow critical opinions on data mismatches or other anomalies. The accumulation of non-performing loans is just one outcome of that regulatory failure, say auditors. This is the backdrop to repeated attempts by
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) has called for prudent, timely and effective economic measures to safeguard Bangladesh's economic momentum in 2026, amid political tension ahead of the 13th national election scheduled to be held on 12 February. In this context, DCCI urges the interim go
The VAT base has expanded sharply following a special nationwide registration drive in December 2025, as the National Board of Revenue (NBR) brought more than 131,000 new entities under the value-added tax (VAT) system. The campaign, timed with VAT Day and VAT Week, exceeded official targets and u
Bangladesh's liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from long-term suppliers will surge to 86 cargoes, up by 53.57 per cent, in 2026 as three long-term sales and purchase agreements (SPAs) become effective from January, sources said. In 2025, state-run Petrobangla imported a total of 56 LNG cargoes f
Returning officers on Saturday declared 149 nomination papers valid and rejected 66 across all 20 parliamentary constituencies in Dhaka following the scrutiny for the 13th Jatiya Sangsad election. Two nominations remained pending and one had been withdrawn, election officials said as the scrutiny
Road and rail transport development has made little headway during the interim government's tenure, as reluctance to approve new or high-cost projects has slowed infrastructure expansion. Even relatively low-cost initiatives such as bus route rationalisation (BRR) and bus rapid transit (BRT) have
The launch of National Equipment Identity Register (NEIR) at the start of the new year constitutes a long-overdue step to curtail the chaos and illicit trade that have defined much of Bangladesh's mobile handset sector. For years the sector has functioned with a large grey zone where illegal import
For the last three years, the country has been experiencing high inflation, eroding the real income of fixed-income people as money loses its value and becomes a melting asset. So, the key question now is whether inflation will continue to rise in the new year. Though inflation witnessed a modest d
For apparel makers, 2025 has been an exceptionally challenging year. In the aftermath of the July-August 2024 uprising that ended Sheikh Hasina's authoritarian rule, the sector had hoped for a fresh start. Instead, a series of setbacks has pushed the industry into renewed crisis. Frequent labour un
After a week of illness, a rural doctor changed a 6-year-old's antibiotic for the third time. Two days later, the child lay in Dhaka Shishu Hospital with sepsis. Nearby in Gazipur, a farmer watched 3,000 broiler chickens die from a gut infection no longer controlled by the "growth promoter" mix in
Subjecting willful loan defaulters to rigorous actions for loan recovery is fully justifiable from bankers' viewpoint. The central bank issued a circular ( BRPD circular no.:6 dated 12.03.2024) instructing all scheduled banks to identify willf
