Sukanta Halder

Hotels and resorts in tourist destinations across Bangladesh are enjoying brisk business thanks to the long holiday afforded by most industries in the current festival season centring Eid-ul-Fitr as they look to partially recover pandemic-induced losses.

Edible oil prices see the biggest increase in Bangladesh’s history as the government moves to put an end to the unprecedented crunch of the essential cooking item.

A banker in Naogaon did not find soybean oil in the local market. A woman in Natore was lucky to score a one-litre bottle for an unusually higher price. A private firm employee in Chattogram decided to make do with mustard oil after failing to find soybean oil in her neighborhood.

Air conditioner is the top-selling home appliance in Bangladesh this Eid-ul-Fitr as consumers look to beat rising temperatures.

Indonesia’s abrupt announcement of a palm oil export ban from tomorrow has sent refiners in Bangladesh into zealous rationing, choking the availability of cooking oil at the retail level at a time when its consumption is high.

The edible oil market has become more volatile after wholesalers and millers cut supplies in anticipation of increased prices of the essential cooking ingredient in the wake of the export ban by Indonesia, the world’s biggest supplier of vegetable oil.

Businesses based in Dhaka’s New Market area had to close down for most of yesterday due to a clash between students and traders, leaving them to face huge losses just one-and-a-half weeks ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest sales season in Bangladesh.

The Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) has fined 21 insurance companies over Tk 72 lakh for, among others, purchasing assets without its approval, charging higher premiums than the government fixed rates and forging letters.

Sales centring Pahela Baishakh have picked up as people from all walks of life, buoyed by the improvement in the coronavirus situation, are set to welcome the Bangla New Year in colour and festivity today.

For the last two months, 35-year old security guard Saiful Islam could not send any money to his parents living in a village in Rangpur, one of the poverty-stricken divisions in Bangladesh.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has unearthed more than Tk 1 crore VAT evasion by PHP Float Glass Industries Ltd after poring over the documents filed by the Chattogram-based company for the period from the fiscal year of 2013-14 to 2017-18.

The Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) is scheduled to publish newspaper advertisements today, seeking applications from entrepreneurs to allot 500 plots lying vacant for years in its industrial estates.

The government has framed a fresh policy to increase domestic salt production through the use of modern and environmentally-friendly technologies and gradually end imports by 2026 when overall demand is projected to reach 25.30 lakh tonnes.

Domestic edible oil prices have declined as refiners reduced their rates after the government drastically cut the value added tax (VAT) on the key cooking ingredient in a bid to ease the pressure on consumers who are being battered by rising food inflation.

The government has framed a fresh policy to increase domestic salt production through the use of modern and environment-friendly technologies and gradually end imports by 2026 when overall demand is projected to reach 25.30 lakh tonnes.

The education sector and the printing industry have been dealt a major blow no sooner had they begun to make a comeback from two-year-long closures and business slowdown owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Food processors in Bangladesh have either cut the size of packs or increased prices to absorb the surging cost of raw materials, handing a blow to end customers already struggling amid higher inflation.

Mohammad Dulal, a tea seller at Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) of the University of Dhaka, used to sell tea made of condensed milk for Tk 6 per cup a month ago. At present, he has increased the price to Tk 10.

The stack of complaints against mobile phone operators is increasing everyday but the authorities are having to keep those aside because of a case pending at High Court (HC).

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