Sohel Parvez

The rapid spread of coronavirus in Bangladesh has shattered traders’ hopes of a sales bonanza of hilsha fish marking the celebration of Pahela Baishakh, the first day of the Bangla new year.

The government will purchase 50 per cent more paddy from farmers in the Boro harvesting season that begins from the latter half of this month with the view to encouraging farmers and for distribution to those who saw their livelihoods evaporate for the outbreak of coronavirus in Bangladesh.

The National Board of Revenue yesterday widened the scope to assess the duty of more imported items in order to ease the burden on the Chattogram port that is mired in container congestion.

Over a week into the stay-home order across the country, hungry and half-fed faces have started to grow in a huge number.

The government is set to bear a portion of the interest payments on working capital of small and medium enterprises that have been hit hard by the ongoing shutdown amid coronavirus scare.

If you happen to be in the southwest village Godkhali or its neighbourhood Panisara, you will find there is no dearth of colours from the stretches of rose, tuberose, marigold, gerbera and gladiolus gardens.

For weeks now, the nation has been obsessed with one set of numbers: how many confirmed cases of coronavirus and how many have died?

The roads are empty. People are hunkering down at home and not coming out other than for essential needs at the kitchen markets, supershops, and pharmacies.

Over the last few days, Health and Hope Hospital has put a restriction on the number of attendants with a patient to just one, at any time of the day.

The revenue board has opposed a commerce ministry suggestion to reduce the value-added tax (VAT) on edible oil on the grounds that the imposition of the indirect tax has little effect on the prices of key cooking ingredient.

The apprehension of a potential lockdown to rein in the coronavirus spread has led to the stockpiling of some essential commodities but businesses said there was nothing to be worried about.

It’s all colourful.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is set to remove all forms of import duties and taxes to encourage quick import of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), raw materials used in hand sanitisers, coronavirus testing kits and re-agents, said finance ministry officials yesterday.

Perhaps the most sought items today are hand sanitisers and alcohol-based hand rubs, once rarely used, as people scramble to protect themselves from the lethal coronavirus.

The coronavirus pandemic has fuelled the demand for tissues globally and Bangladesh, where new cases of contagion are being identified, is not an exception.

Exports of fresh produce from Bangladesh have been hit in the wake of flight restrictions imposed by several Middle Eastern countries to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, exporters said yesterday.

With Indian onion starting to reenter Bangladesh after a six-month export ban, two government wings are up for discouraging the arrival of the tuber to protect local growers from price slumps amidst ongoing harvests.

Bus operators are bracing for bumpy roads ahead in the wake of India’s ban on entry of foreign nationals until April 15 and people avoiding travel within the country over apprehensions centring the coronavirus outbreak.

The government is putting its best foot forward to help farmers buy agricultural machinery with subsidy ahead of the next boro season so that the growers can bring down their production costs, said officials of the agriculture ministry.

Technology can change the world, it is often said. And the lives of the country’s 1.5 crore farm families, who are often shorn of fair prices, are about to change with the government move to purchase paddy from them by way of a mobile application.