AL to hold 'biggest-ever rally' Mar 7

DHAKA NEWS

Dhaka, Feb 29  The Awami League on Wednesday declared that the party would stage the biggest mass rally ever in the capital to coincide with the historic March 7.

AL acting general-secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif made the disclosure at a joint meeting at party's central office on Bangabandhu Avenue. The meeting was held as part of the preparation for the Mar 7 programme.

Members of the party's executive council, associate organisations, Dhaka city unit AL and all adjacent districts attended the meeting.

"It will be the biggest mass rally ever in the history of Bangladesh," Hanif said.

According to him, the rally will start from Suhrawardy Udyan at 3pm and wind up at the historic Bangabandhu Bhaban on Road 32 of Dhanmondi here.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the AL president, is slated to inaugurate the rally.

On Mar 7, 1971, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in a fiery and inspiring speech delivered at Dhaka's Race Course Maidan (now Suhrawardy Udyan), declared the decisive battle against the then repressive Pakistani forces.

At the historic gathering, Bangabandhu's words — "Ebarer sangram amader muktir sangram, ebarer sangram swadhinatar sangram (this time the struggle is for our freedom, for our independence)" — echoed through the ground and the hearts of 70 million Bangalis.

Sheikh Mujib called for a civil uprising and declared a war against the then Pakistani occupying forces. He said: "Since we have sacrificed blood, we will sacrifice more. We will definitely liberate the country, Insha-Allah… Turn every house into a fort and counter (the enemy) with whatever you have."

The speech inspired people from all walks of life to prepare for the Liberation War.

PM allays fears on stock market

DHAKA NEWS

Dhaka, Feb 29  Brokerage houses have been urged not to go for 'forced-selling' option, prime minister Sheikh Hasina told parliament on Wednesday.

Reply to a question from Noakhali-1 MP Mahbubuddin Khokan over stability of the share market, she also mentioned that commercial banks have agreed to invest 'more' in the capital market.

When a brokerage house or a merchant bank sells shares of clients in apprehension that total price of his/her shares could go below the margin loan taken from the broker, it is called 'forced selling'.

"Fluctuation in share prices is a normal phenomenon in share markets all over the world," she said.

The prime minister said the government is alert to safeguard the interests of capital market investors, and went on to enumerate the short-, mid- and long-term steps taken by her government in this regard.

"The market was overvalued in 2010. A committee, headed by [Khondkar] Ibrahim Khaled, was formed for this," she said.

Following the report of the committee, cases have been filed against five people, and 14 other issues are under investigation, she said.

"The process of giving tax exemption benefit on the shares bought from secondary market is underway," the prime minister informed.

She said current insider trading rule is weak and steps have been taken to make it more effective.

"Besides, they [brokers] have been urged to decrease the time taken to adjust trading to two days from three days, ease financial co-ordination and not to go for forced-sale," she added.

Fall in share prices since December 2010 caused the Dhaka Stock Exchange general index to shed 60 percent until the first week of last month.

Most of the small stock market investors, who had invested after getting loans from brokers, have fallen prey to forced-sale and lost their capitals.

Analysts say the pressure on selling created by forced-sale is the reason behind the fall.

On Nov 16 last year, the prime minister had met share market stakeholders and announced that the investors, who lost their money due to the continuous fall in share prices, will be compensated and a committee in this regard was formed later.

An incentives package was also announced to stabilise the sagging market.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the package on Nov 23. Though the market saw stable trading in December, share prices once again fell abruptly in January.

Prices of shares have, however, been increasing since the second week of February.

After the committee to compensate the investors submitted its report on Feb 22, finance minister A M A Muhith said the government will announce the final modalities within 10 days.

Tougher tobacco law plan botched

DHAKA NEWS

Dhaka, Feb 29 A vigorous campaign by a leading tobacco maker has seen almost two and a half years' efforts to roll out 'tougher' anti-tobacco regulations in Bangladesh go up in smoke.

The health ministry was ready to place the draft amendment of the 2005 law in the Dec 19 cabinet meeting after getting clearance from the finance ministry and other organisations. But it was not placed and the plan was blown away.

A deputy secretary, Azam-e-Sadat, who was assigned with the task, later said the finance ministry eventually recalled the draft.

Digging into the reasons that prompted the finance ministry to recall the draft which they themselves had endorsed in July last year,found that British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) apparently convinced the finance minister just a day before the cabinet meeting to back away.

According to a finance ministry official, a delegation from the multinational tobacco giant met minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith and handed him a letter, a copy of which is available with
The letter argued that the government would lose out on revenue if the law was passed.

The minister in a note over the BATB letter told the National Board of Revenue chairman to look into it at once. Muhith also asked at whose initiative the amendment was being made.

The minister could not be reached immediately for comment.

But anti-tobacco campaigners said pressures from the tobacco companies were not unexpected. "It's a part of our struggle," Taifur Rahman, coordinator of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told

He said if passed, the draft amendment would have been a 'great one'. "But it would not cut the government's revenue collection immediately. It would take years," he said, arguing that people would not give up on the habit overnight just because of a law.

He urged prime minister's intervention in the affair.

The BATB in the letter claimed they pay over Tk 73.3 billion in revenue every year and also, together with local cigarette producers, employ 'thousands of people'.

But experts say the loss of jobs in the tobacco sector is not being caused by tobacco control measures but by the companies increasing their mechanisation endeavours to make productions go up and save money by enhancing efficiency, and reducing payments to farmers.

Dr Sohel Reza Chowdhury, organising secretary of United Forum Against Tobacco, a doctors' group, said the World Health Organisation in 2004 estimated that Bangladesh spend twice the money it earns from tobacco producers to treat tobacco-related illnesses.

He said such illnesses cause nearly 57,000 annual deaths and 382,000 disabilities in Bangladesh.

"But it's (tobacco-related illnesses) not immediately obvious. It takes time to appear," he said.

The chairman of the forum, national professor Dr Abdul Malik, said 'invisible hands' were always active to thwart the process to put in place a stringent anti-tobacco law.

"We must work together to win over our strong opponents (tobacco companies)," he said and added that the law was 'badly needed' for public health safety.

According to Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2009, the latest figures available, at least 41.3 million people aged above 15 used tobacco either in smoke or smokeless form in Bangladesh. The number was 32.3 million in 2007.

Estimates suggest with 5.4 trillion cigarettes consumed, the developing world constitutes about 70 percent of the total global tobacco use.

According to experts, tobacco usage has decreased in developed world but increased in developing countries due to lax tobacco control laws.

The World Health Organisation says 'very poor' households in countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico and Egypt spend up to 15 per cent of their income on buying tobacco products.

Slum children lost in stats: UN report

DHAKA NEWS

Dhaka, Feb 29 The United Nations has warned that millions of children are growing up in urban slums of Bangladesh enduring poverty and deprivation, but the aggregate figures of children of cities obscure their disparities.

The State of the World's Children 2012 released by Unicef on Wednesday showed that like other parts of the world, children in the city slums of the country are 'invisible'.

"They (children in slums) are often invisible to decision makers and lost in hazy world of statistical averages that conceal grave inequities," Unicef Bangladesh representative Pascal Villeneuve said at the report launching ceremony in the capital.

Presenting the report, Arifa S. Sharmin, communication manager of Unicef, said amid growing urbanisation, 28 percent of the total population of Bangladesh lives in cities today.

The report showed over half the world's 7 billion people now live in cities.

"Families migrate from rural to cities in search of economic opportunities, but they have to live even more miserable life once landing in a slum."

Sharmin said children in city slums are denied basic services like education, health, water and sanitation, but their situations are often represented by aggregate figures that show city children to be better off than their rural counterparts.

The 2009 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey of the government made it clear that conditions in slums are much worse than those in most rural areas, even going by service delivery-type indicators, such as secondary education attendance rates and skilled attendance at birth.

The survey showed the under-five mortality rate in slums is 79 percent higher than the overall urban rate, and 44 percent higher than the rural rate.

While attendance in secondary education is 48 percent in rural areas and 53 percent in cities, it is only 18 percent in slums.

Economist Abul Barkat, speaking at the launching, urged the government not to make plans with aggregate figures.

"It conceals the real picture," he said and added that the ongoing urbanisation in Bangladesh is basically 'forced' migration.

"People have to leave villages in search of livelihood. Sometimes they lost all in river erosion," he said and that in such (forced) migration, 'poor become poorer'.

Unicef urges governments to put children 'at the heart of urban planning' and to extend and improve services for all.

Former secretary Dhiraj Kumar Nath, who currently works on urban health planning, agreed with the Unicef findings.

He told that municipalities do not take slums into cognizance. "That's why slum dwellers do not get civic amenities," he said and that children grow amid insecurities in slums as most of their parents work either as rickshaw pullers or maid servants leaving them unattended at home.

Nath said they are drafting an urban health strategy to find ways of ensuring healthcare to city dwellers.

Kamaruzzaman indictment hearing delayed

DHAKA NEWS

Dhaka, Feb 29 The war crimes tribunal on Wednesday deferred the indictment hearing of Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman to Mar 18.

The International Crimes Tribunal, set up to try war crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War, was expected to begin hearing charges against the Jamaat leader on Wednesday.

But tribunal chairman, Justice Nizamul Huq, granted defence counsel M Taul Islam' prayer seeking more time.

On Jan 31, the tribunal took cognisance of war crimes charges against the Jamaat leader and fixed Feb 29 as the date for indictment hearing.

On July 21 last year, the tribunal's investigation officers started probing charges of crimes against humanity, allegedly committed the Jamaat leader during the Liberation war. He was shown arrested to the tribunal on Aug 2 last year.

The 327-page report brought charges of rape, murder, arson, loot and other crimes against Kamruzzaman during the '71 war. On Jan 15, the prosecution submitted formal charges against him to the tribunal.

Besides Kamaruzzaman, others detained on war crimes charges are former and current Jamaat chiefs Ghulam Azam and Matiur Rahman Nizami, party's Naeb-e-Ameer Delwar Hossain Sayedee, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed and assistant secretary general Abdul Quader Molla, and BNP standing committee member and MP Salauddin Quader Chowdhury

The tribunal granted conditional bail to former BNP lawmaker and minister Abdul Alim on March 31 last year. The bail was extended further on Jan 16, ordering him to be present in the court on Mar 15 when the prosecution has been directed to submit formal charges against the BNP leader.

BB calls details of high-worth bank accounts

DHAKA NEWS

Dhaka, Feb 29  Some commercial banks are paying interest at rates higher than they announced, the Bangladesh Bank says and calls the details of rates applied to the accounts with over Tk 1 crore deposits.

As per a central bank circular on Wednesday, the banks will have to update records and furnish the details of interest given to depositors on weekly basis.

The central bank mentioned that it had ordered the commercial banks on Jan 4 last year not to pay interest at rates higher than the ones announced by them.

It also altered a rule that allows banks to change interest rates more than once a month.

Now on, banks will be able to change interest rates only once a month.

Previously, the banks would set interest rates more than once in keeping with the existing provision.

A month ago, the Bangladesh Bank instructed the commercial banks to keep the difference between the interest rate offered on deposits and charged on loans within five percent.

JS nods bill on taxing MPs, speakers

DHAKA NEWS

Dhaka, Feb 29 Parliament on Wednesday passed two bills into law to tax salaries of the speaker and other members of parliament.

The bills are the Speaker and Deputy Speaker (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Act 2012 and the Member of Parliament (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Act 2012.

The law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister, Shafique Ahmed, presented the bills in the Jatiya Sangsad.

The laws will take effect retrospectively from July 1 of the previous year.

In line with a 1973 act, remunerations of lawmakers had been exempted from taxes, and so were pays and perks of speaker and deputy speakers, in line with another law framed in 1974.

The bills have been passed on Wednesday to remove the disparity.

On Feb 6, state minister for law Qamrul Islam presented the bills on behalf of law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister Shafique Ahmed.

The bills were then sent to the parliamentary standing committee on the law, justice and parliament affairs ministry, which was expected to submit a report within 15 days after scrutiny.

The finance minister had made an announcement to this effect in the last budget session.

Accordingly, the cabinet approved the bills on Nov 28 last year facilitating implementation of the announcement.

In the absence of these laws, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) had failed to tax salaries of the speaker, deputy speaker and the lawmakers.