FY2015-16budget today

n Kayes Sohel

Finance Minister AMA Muhith is set to pres-ent the annual budget for � scal year 2015-16 in parliament today, aimed at stimulating battered investments amid cooling economic growth and political uncertainty.

The country has been locked in a 6% growth cycle for nearly a decade, with slow downs in manufacturing, declining agricul-tural growth and in� ation that has risen in recent months.

Even though the Finance Ministry is push-ing for an increase in public expenditure to raise growth over the next � scal year, as it has on previous occasions, it must balance the measure using increased revenue collection and by encouraging private investment to en-sure quality growth.

Muhith, who is scheduled to place his ninth budget at 3pm, has to meet expectations and match resources with the allocations.

The mobilisation of resources to � nance massive expenditure on the recapitalisation of

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

FY16 budget de� cit not to cross 5% of GDP n Asif Showkat Kallol

The budget de� cit for the next � scal year would be 41.26% higher than that of the out-going � scal year, mainly due to increased expenditure for the government employees who would be entitled to get pays in accord-ance with the new pay scale starting from July 1 this year.

The de� cit in the outgoing � scal year was Tk613.46bn and is now expected to be Tk866.57bn in the next budget, according to the budget document obtained by the Dhaka Tribune.

However, the de� cit is not going to cross the 5% of GDP - a standard practice in Bangla-desh. Development partners also suggest that the budget de� cit do not cross this limit.

Earlier in 2009-10, the de� cit had increased by about 45% from the previous � scal year due to the implementation of a new pay scale.

In the coming � scal year 2015-16, the government makes a provision of around Tk220bn in addition to the existing salary expenditure, which contributed to the in-creased budgetary outlay. There are around 2.1 million government employees at present.

The government plans to � nance 65.23% or Tk565.23bn of the total budget de� cit from local sources – borrowing from banks and savings instruments.

The revenue expenditure for the next � s-cal year is expected to increase by 25.19% to

Tk1.93tn from the existing Tk1.54tn because of the new pay scale implementation. The government will keep aside Tk220bn as a block allocation in the new � scal budget.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith is scheduled PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

SECOND EDITION

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015 | Jyoistha 21, 1422, Sha’ban 16, 1436 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 52 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

PAGE 6Erosion leaves 20 families homeless

PAGE 5‘Anti-liberation forces using Ansarullah’s name’

PAGE 32Smuggling suspect Thai army man surrenders

PAGE 4Kibria murder trial shifted to another court

PAGE 3Bangladesh, India agree to build Ganges barrage jointly

6 DEAD IN ACCIDENTS IN DHAKA PAGE 3

SYRIA REGIME BARREL BOMBS KILL 24 PAGE 5

MYANMAR LANDS 700 MIGRANTS IN RAKHINE PAGE 32

P R E - B U D G E T 2 0 1 5 - 1 6

Seven burnt in petrol bomb attack on bus in Comilla n Tribune Report

Seven people sustained burns when a bus of Unique Paribahan came under arson attack near Jute Research Institute in Chandina upazila early yesterday.

The injured are Sumon Chandra Nath, 35, Imran Hossain, 25, Ranjit Sharma, 60, Anjan Kumar Dey, 50, Khokon Chakma, 35, Jahirul Islam, 30, and Lavli Akhter, 25.

They were � rst sent to Chandina Upazila Health Complex but were shifted to Comilla Medical College Hospital from there. Later, six of them were brought to Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s burn unit for better treat-ment.

“Ranjit sustained 26% burns, Khokon 18%, Imran 10%, Anjan 44% and Sumon got his hands and face burnt,” said a doctor of the burn unit.

The attack involved petrol bombs hurled at the bus at 1:30am, when the Muslims across

the country were o� ering prayers at homes and mosques as it was the night of Shab-e-Barat.

Sirajul Islam, driver of the bus which was travelling to Rangamati from Dhaka, said he heard a bang after reaching Chandina and the bus was on � re in a moment, reports our Comilla correspondent.

“The helpers and I managed to douse the � ame. The injuries of two of the seven victims were severe as their seats caught � re. The � ve others were injured when the passengers were hurriedly trying to alight from the bus,” he said.

Rasul Ahmed Nizami, o� cer-in-charge of Chandina police station, said it was initially thought that the � re was caused by the explo-sion of the gas cylinder or breakdown.

“But we later found out that Molotov cock-tails were hurled at the bus even though we do not know who made the attack. The bus

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Burn victims receive treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital burn unit who sustained the injuries when a Rangamati-bound bus from Dhaka caught � re as miscreants hurled petrol bomb on it at Chandina yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

86,657

14.3%5%

26.9%

41.3%

61,346

48,36246,02640,266

FY2015-16 budget todayscam-hit state-owned banks, the soaring costs of the Padma bridge project and public serv-ants’ increased salaries will add di� culty to the � nance minister’s already challenging task.

But nothing could stop Muhith from plan-ning an outlay that is over three times higher than the one he presented six years ago as the � nance minister of Sheikh Hasina’s govern-ment.

He is expected to propose today a budget of over Tk2.95tn, which is almost 23% higher than the revised budget of the outgoing � scal year, top government sources said.

Analysts have already started saying that implementation of the budget will be a chal-lenging job for the � nance minister in a situ-ation a� ected by political uncertainty, insu� -

cient infrastructure, a lingering energy crisis, inept administration and corruption.

Former � nance adviser to the caretaker government AB Mirza Azizul Islam said the success of a budget depends on its implemen-tation. “The targets the government are going to announce are far from reality.”

Over the last few years, the Finance Minis-try has been projecting higher revenue earn-ings to keep the � scal de� cit target low. The tax growth target for FY2015-16 will be closely watched.

The � nance minister is expected to set a revenue earnings target of over Tk2tn for the upcoming � scal year, up nearly 22% from the current revised estimate.

“The revenue earnings target is not real-istic as the revenue growth required needs to be 30% of GDP, whereas the existing trend ranges between 10% and 11%,” Mirza Aziz said.

Although the government had o� ered sops to private in-vestment, Mirza Aziz said the gas crisis, political uncertain-ty and corruption could hold back investment.

“These are the main chal-lenges to implementing the new budget. Although pub-lic investment has increased gradually, it did not foster faster growth because returns on the investments are low compared to private invest-ment,” he said.

Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute Ah-

san H Mansur said: “The key challenge will be to boost private investment that has been stagnant for so long due to infrastructure con-straints, the energy crisis and, to some extent, political uncertainty.”

Unnecessary fund allocation to recapitalise scam-hit banks and loss-making state-owned enterprises are a burden on the budget be-cause they are a waste of money spent be-cause of ine� cient administration and cor-ruption, he said.

The � nance minister is expected to pump funds valued at Tk5,000 crore into the ailing state-owned banks for FY2015-16. During the previous two � scal years, Tk9,000 crore was allocated to recapitalise the banks.

Mansur said Bangladesh does not have a friendly tari� regime to woo both foreign and domestic investments, something he said was needed for faster and better economic growth.

“This is also a big challenge for the govern-ment. Tari� policy is usually made to satisfy individuals who have political clout and who are getting fatter day by day,” he said.

The � nance minister hinted that the GDP growth target would be 7.1% in the new � scal year. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics said the GDP growth in the outgoing � scal was 6.51%, far from its original target of 7.3%.

The government has had to revise down its growth target due to political unrest over the last two years.

This year, the � nance minister is expected to � x the growth target in line with the sev-enth � ve-year development plan beginning in the new � scal year.

The budget is expected to chalk out a strat-egy to raise subsidies and boost investment in both the public and private sectors. l

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Narendra Modi likely to meet Khaleda Zia on June 7n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to meet BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia during his visit to Bangladesh.

A senior leader seeking anonymity told the Dhaka Tribune that Modi might meet Khaleda on June 7 afternoon.

He said after � nalisation of Modi’s visit to Dhaka, Khaleda Zia wrote a letter addressing Modi expressing her desire to meet the Indian premier.

The BNP leader said Khaleda in the letter mentioned that the BNP and the BJP had a very good tie. Khaleda also expressed hope that the tie would deepen in future.

Although Khaleda does not hold any of-� cial portfolio, Modi might meet Khaleda as

she is the chief of a large political party and a former prime minister of the country.

Another BNP leader said the BNP wants to send a positive message to Modi government that the party believes in strengthening rela-tions with all political parties, especially with the people, of India.

“India is the largest democratic state and it has a very good and historic tie with Bangladesh. Stability in Bangladesh is very important for India,” Mahbubur Rahman, a Standing Committee member of the party, said.

Bangladesh is unstable now and India is also realising it. India will come forward to protect democracy of Bangladesh. Mahbubur expressed hope that Modi would talk about democracy. l

Seven burnt in petrol bomb attackwas taken to police station and a case will be � led,” he said.

Probe committee formedComilla Deputy Commissioner Hasanuz-zaman Kollol, RAB 11 Company Commander Khurshid Alam, Chandina Upazila Nirbahi O� cer Sumon Chowdhury and several oth-

er government o� cials visited the scene of the attack at 10am. The Comilla deputy com-missioner also visited the victims at Comilla Medical College Hospital an hour earlier and gave them Tk10,000 each for medical ex-penses, our correspondent reports.

He told reporters the attackers could be the same people who hurled petrol bombs dur-

ing the � rst three months of the year when a blockade imposed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was in force across the country.

“A � ve-member committee headed by Ad-ditional District Magistrate Golamur Rahman was formed to probe the incident and attack-ers will be nabbed,” said Hasanuzzaman.

The nation saw a spate of petrol bomb at-

tacks in di� erent parts of the country when political unrest reached its peak after the BNP chief announced the countrywide blockade on January 5. General strikes were also called in phases on top of the blockade.

The attacks claimed more than 100 lives and injured scores while a large number of transports were also damaged. l

Budget de� cit to place the FY16 budget of Tk2.95tn in parliament today. Finance Ministry o� cials said the de� cit will be a major challenge for the government in 2015-16.

An o� cial said another challenge would be achieving the revenue earnings target of Tk2.08tn in the current sluggish business situation. “Any shortfall in the revenue target would widen the de� cit further only to intensify the challenge.”

A number of o� cials said political uncertainty coupled with the government’s failure to attract both foreign and local investments would a� ect revenue earnings, contributing to widening of the de� cit in the next � scal year.

They feared uncertain political situation and ine� ciency of the National Board of Revenue would a� ect the revenue earnings.

According to the seventh � ve-year plan, the investment needs to be signi� cantly raised to 32% of the GDP from the existing 21-24% to achieve an 8% growth.

But Manila-based agency Asian Development Bank said to attain more than 7% growth, the country requires a total investment of 34.3% of the GDP. In the outgoing � scal year, revenue collection might stand at Tk1.3tn against the target of Tk1.49tn.

According to the budget document, the revenue earnings are projected to be Tk1.76tn in the next � scal year.

The budget size of Tk2.95tn would be 18% higher than the outgoing � scal year’s original budget of Tk2.5tn and 22.19% higher than the revised budget of Tk2.4tn. O� cials said the budget layout is growing bigger because of the government’s development e� orts.

The growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to be at 7.1% in the new � scal year. l

Joy: Only Awami League can stop militancyn Abu Hayat Mahmud

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ICT adviser Sajeeb Wazed joy has said only the Awami League can stop militancy in Bangladesh.

Hasina’s son Joy also alleged that terrorist activities went on unabated during the tenure of the BNP-Jamaat-led government.

He said this in a status update in his o� cial Facebook page on Monday midnight.

“I would like to remind everyone that the only force in Bangladesh stopping all of these terrorists is the Awami League. Maybe be-cause it has been over six years [that is why] people have forgotten the free reign terrorists had during the BNP-Jamaat regime,” the sta-tus reads.

He also claimed that the police had

foiled an attempt to form a Bangladesh wing of international terrorist out� t Islamic State, better known as IS. He said that the Ansarullah Bangla, one of whose members

had been trying to form the IS wing, was banned last week.

“This terrorist organisation took credit for the recent murders of bloggers in Bangla-desh,” Joy said in the status update. l

‘Maybe because it has been over six years [that is why] people have forgotten the free reign terrorists had during the BNP-Jamaat regime’

NEWS2DT

NEWS 3D

TTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

Taslima Nasreen leaves for US after threat from Islamistsn AFP

Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen yes-terday said she had left India for the US after receiving death threats from Islamists responsible for the recent blogger mur-ders in Bangladesh.

Taslima, 52, who � ed to Europe in 1994 af-ter Muslim extremists protested her writing, tweeted that she did not feel safe in the India.

“Was threatened by Islamists who killed atheist bloggers in B’desh [sic]. Worried,” she tweeted. “Will be back when feel safe.”

She said she had asked for a meeting with Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh after re-ceiving threats but had received no response.

The move came weeks after masked at-tackers hacked secular blogger Ananta Bijoy Das to death in Sylhet, the third such deadly attack by suspected Islamists since February.

Ananta had written a poem eulogizing Nasreen, who left Bangladesh after she was accused of blasphemy over her novel “Lajja” (Shame), which depicts the persecution of a Hindu family. l

Six dead in separate accidents in Dhakan Kamrul Hasan

At least six people died yesterday in separate accidents on the road and on the rail tracks in the capital; the incidents also left at least 16 people injured.

In the afternoon, a bus overturned near the Karwan Bazar intersection and claimed the life of the bus helper and injured 15 more.

Witnesses said two buses were recklessly racing each other on the Karwan Bazar street, which is one of the busiest roads in the cap-ital – but stayed relatively empty yesterday because of the public holiday.

One of the buses tried to block the other in an attempt to overtake, causing it to swerve and � ip over on its side near the CA Bhaban; the other bus driver also failed to steer his vehicle and climbed onto the central reserva-tion. Both the buses operated on the number eight route from Jatrabari to Gabtoli.

The helper of the overturned bus, aged around 28, died in the accident. His identity could not be known at the time, said tra� c Inspector Khadimun Islam of Tejgaon zone.

Of the injured, at least four were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and three of them su� ered burn injuries, said DMCH o� -cials.

Tra� c on the street came to halt for around 15 minutes after the accident as the overturned bus had to be moved from the road.

Meanwhile, two young men were killed and another was injured when their motorcy-cle was reportedly rammed by a covered van on the Khilgaon � yover.

The deceased are Md Ashikur Rahman Shanto, 20, son of Md Habibur Rahman and Mainuddin, 28, son of Nurul Islam. Their friend Emon, 20, who was also on the bike,

escaped death but su� ered injuries.Sabujbagh police OC Ra� qul Islam said the

three men had gone for a drive on the � yover when a covered van rammed the motorcycle, causing it to veer and hit the railing of the � y-over.

Khilgaon police Sub-Inspector Nayan said the accident took place around 4:30am, while the three youths were taken to the DMCH a little before six in the morning.

The sole survivor, Emon, said the accident took place as they were returning from the airport after bidding farewell to a friend who was going abroad.

Elsewhere in Rampura, the police recov-ered the body of a man who was reportedly hit by a bus of Turag Paribahan yesterday af-ternoon. His identity remained unknown as of � ling this report.

Meanwhile, near the Biman head o� ce in

Kurmitola, the police found the body of Me-hedi Hasan, 37, son of Abdul Jalil, and seized a motorcycle and covered van from the spot. They suspected that the van had been left abandoned after it had hit the bike and killed Mehedi.

Another body was also found near the rail tracks between the airport and cantonment rail stations. The victim was suspected to have died after being hit by a train. l

Bangladesh, India agree to construct Ganges barrage jointlyn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Bangladesh has agreed to construct $4 billion mega Ganges Barrage with India.

“It is better to develop the priority project with Indian,” Water Resources Secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan told the Dhaka Tribune.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming to Dhaka and after the o� cial talks between the two prime ministers, it is expected that they would give a directive in a joint statement, he said.

“Let the two heads of governments take the political decision and the rest will be taken care of,” he said.

Zafar Ahmed Khan said during the visit of Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali to India last September, Bangladesh asked India to join the project.

“We also handed over a study report on the Ganges Barrage project to Indian Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati in her meeting with the foreign minister,” he said.

India sought some clari� cation and Bangladesh has already responded to it, he added.

When asked about other interested parties like China and Japan, he said: “Many showed

their interest but we think it is better to construct the project with India.”

During the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Japan in May last year, she asked her Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe to consider a range of speci� c projects including Ganges Barrage.

The government also signed a memorandum of understanding with a state-owned Chinese company, Changjiang Research Company Limited, in 2012 for probable � nancing of the project.

The water resources secretary said after getting the political directive, all other things including � nancing and engineering will be settled later.

“This is a very important project for Bangladesh as it will remove salinity and ensure sweet water in south-west part of the country,” he said.

Bangladesh felt to construct the barrage as India has been diverting 40,000 cusec of water through Farakka barrage since 1975.

Due to this diversion, water � ow has reduced drastically inside Bangladesh and salinity increased in the south-west part of the country and threatened the biggest

mangrove forest, Sundarbans.The Ganges Barrage will create a reservoir

with a length of 165 kilometres which can contain 2.9 billion cubic metre of water.

It will cover all the districts in the region where one-third of Bangladesh population live.

Bangladesh signed Ganges Water Sharing Treaty in 1996 for 30 years and it is important to construct the barrage before 2026 as it will help Bangladesh to secure a better deal for getting water after 2026.

The feasibility study and detailed design of the project was completed last year and if ensured � nancing, the project work can be started any time.

“We are ready and now what we need is � nancing,” said a senior government o� cial.

The main objective to the barrage is to increase � ow of water for the rivers which are dependent on Ganges.

According to the feasibility study, it will take seven years to build the barrage and within � ve years, the estimated expenditure will be recovered.

The length of the barrage will be 2.1 kilometres and the estimated cost will be Tk31,000 crore. l

A loaded bus overturns while racing with another bus at Karwan Bazar in Dhaka, killing a man and injuring several others yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

NEWS4DTTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

Kibria murder trial shifted to another courtn Our Correspondent, Habiganj

The Judicial Magistrate Court of Habiganj district has shifted the two cases in former � nance minister Shah AMS Kibria murder to the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court for trial.

Judge Nishat Sultana on Tuesday also set June 21 for further hearing in the cases.

On January 27, 2005, � ve people including Kibria were killed in a grenade attack after the former � nance minister had been returning from a rally in Boidyer Bazar of Habiganj.

Local Awami League leader Abdul Majid Khan � led two cases with the Habiganj sadar police station – one for murder and the other under the explosives act.

Members of outlawed militant group Har-katul Jihad Al Islami, better known as Huji, and several local BNP leaders have been named in the supplementary charge sheets pressed in November last year.

Kibria’s family members expressed dis-satisfaction with the supplementary charge sheet as several names including then Hab-iganj deputy commissioner Emdadul Haque were dropped from the list of accused by the investigator. l

Ctg Jamaat ameer rearrested at jail gaten FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong

ANM Shamsul Islam, ameer of Jamaat-e-Isla-mi’s Chittagong wing, was arrested again at the gate of Chittagong Central Jail yesterday morning.

He was arrested around 11:30am, soon af-ter he was released on bail, and then handed over to the district police around 2pm, Addi-tional Deputy Commissioner SM Tanveer Ara-fat told the Dhaka Tribune.

Chittagong Central Jail’s Deputy Jail-er Monir Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune that Shamsul was released on bail in a case � led with Panchlaish police station around 10:30am.

“We received the bail order from court on Tuesday night,” he said.

Earlier, the Jamaat leader was rearrested at the jail gate on July 16 last year.

Before then, he was arrested along with 20 other local Jamaat leaders while holding a clandestine meeting at their Chittagong city o� ce in Dewanbazar by Kotwali police on May 12 the same year.

Police also seized two litres of petrol, 1.5kg of potassium, 60 glass bottles, a laptop, a mo-dem and Tk1.13 lakh from the o� ce at that time. l

Father jailed for killing daughter to implicate rivaln Our Correspondent, Munshiganj

A Munshiganj court on Tuesday sent a man to jail who confessed to killing his daughter to implicate his rival falsely.

Police said Sadek Ali, son of late Abdur Raz-zak of Paniarchar village, killed his 11-year-old daughter Shyamoli Akhter with the help of two cohorts on May 23.

On Monday night, police arrested Sadek and Abul Hossain, one of the two accomplic-es, while the other, Abdul Khaleq, went into hiding.

O� cer-in-Charge of Sirajdikhan police station Yardous Hasan said Sadek had a long-standing feud with Faruq, son of Akbar Ali of the same village, over land and money.

“On May 23, Sadek took Shyamoli, a fourth-grader, out for a walk near the Singha River where the two accomplices were wait-ing.

“They boarded a boat and Shyamoli fell asleep on her father’s lap after some time. Around 10pm, they strangled the girl to death and dumped the body in a � eld on the river-bank,” he said.

Police recovered the body on May 25. l

Prof Iftekhar new VC of Chittagong Universityn CU Correspondent

Pro Vice-Chancellor of Chittagong University (CU) Professor Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury has been appointed as the new VC of the universi-ty on Tuesday for the next four years.

CU’s Deputy Registrar (Information) Md Farhad Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune that President Abdul Hamid, also the chancellor of CU, relieved Professor Iftekhar from his duty as the Pro VC and appointed him as the 17th VC of the university.

He would take charge and replace Profes-sor Anwarul Azif Arif from June 15, added Far-had Hossain.

The tenure of current VC Professor An-warul Azif Arif, who was appointed in 2011, will end on June 14, said campus sources.

Professor Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury was made Pro VC on May 30 in 2013.

Hailing from Chittagong, Professor If-tekhar earned his honours and master’s de-gree from the Department of Sociology of CU with an outstanding result. He joined the same department as a lecturer in 1982 and lat-er earned his PhD from Sakura University of Japan in 1988. l

NEWS 5D

TTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

‘Anti-liberation forces using Ansarullah’s name’n Mohammad Jamil Khan

As seven more noted persons including State Minister for Home A� airs Asaduzzaman Khan issued death threats on Tuesday allegedly by banned militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team, second time in two weeks, the junior minister claims that it is an act of the anti-lib-eration forces.

“I do not do anything that may suggest that I am an atheist. I say my prayers on time and reg-ularly. I do not know how my name came in such a letter,” he told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

“It is the same group, the anti-liberation forces, who had failed to create panic through anarchy using petrol bombs just couple of days ago. I am quite sure about it,” he added.

On May 21, Ansarullah sent letters to 10 other eminent persons, including an adviser to the prime minister and a lawmaker, term-ing them anti-Islam.

Ansarullah members are blamed for the killings of several secular teachers, writers and activists since 2013. Detectives and media re-ports say they have targeted many noted per-sonalities and secular activists who they � nd as obstruction to establishing Shariah law.

Asaduzzaman said he would discuss about the next course of action with high o� cials of the law enforcement agencies. “Action will be taken against those responsible after proper investigation.

“There is nothing to be panicked. If anyone [mentioned on the list] wants security, proper measures will be taken.”

The new list also include the names of Uni-versity Grants Commission Chairman Prof AK Azad Chowdhury; DU Zahurul Haque Hall Provost Delowar Hossain; Arts Faculty Dean Prof Md Aktheruzzaman; actor Shomi Kaiser; DU acting proctor Prof Dr Amzad Ali; and one Abu Musa M Masuduzzaman Zakaria.

“Ansarullah Bangla Team-13” sent the let-ters to the recipients by post mentioning that it was the “second list of Death, Must you will prepare for Death.”

A general diary was registered with Dhan-mondi police by the DU authorities, OC Noor-e-Azam Mia said. “We are also assessing secu-rity measures for the persons.”

The previous letter mentioned the names of PM’s Adviser HT Imam, lawmaker Tarana Halim, Dhaka University VC Prof AAMS Are-� n Siddique, Jagannath Hall Provost Ashim Sarker, Shahjalal University teacher Prof Mu-hammed Zafar Iqbal, Gonojagoron Moncho Spokesperson Imran H Sarker, and writers Bikash Saha, Md Iqbalur Rahim and Paltan Sutar. O� cials of Shahbagh police and the DB police are investigating the matter.

Prof Are� n termed the fresh letters little fear-ful and blamed the law enforcers for their fail-ure to bring the culprits to book. “It is high time

that the law enforcers identify those responsible for issuing such death threats. Their � nanciers should be traced too,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

DU acting proctor Prof Amzad also blames the police for their failure to identify the cul-prits. He demanded adequate security meas-ures for the persons under threat.

Recently, the son of Prof Humayun Azad, Ananya Azad, said he had been threatened with death by extremists. Exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen was shifted to the US from In-dia on Tuesday followed by threats of militants.

Believed to an al-Qaeda a� liate in Bangla-desh, Ansarullah works in collaboration with other outlawed militant and radical groups.

SM Jahangir Alam Sarker, acting deputy commissioner of DMP, said they were not tensed about the fresh death threats. “But we have taken it seriously and increased vig-ilance. We are investigating the matter giving utmost priority,” he told the Dhaka Tribune. l

10-year-old shot dead on Shab-e-Barat night n FM Mizanur Rahaman,

Chittagong

A child, who was at the wrong place at the wrong time, was shot dead by unidenti� ed mis-creants in the city’s Moham-madpur area on the night of Shab-e-Barat.

Ten-year-old Asadul Mia, son of late Mokhtar Hossain of Brah-manbaria, had recently arrived in the locality to visit his uncle’s house in Tuni Munsir Bari area.

Police said armed miscre-ants riding on two motorcycles arrived in the area around 9pm on Tuesday and started shoot-ing at a local businessman named Delwar Sheikh.

Asadul was returning to his uncle’s house after buying some candles for Shab-e-Barat, when he got caught in the line of � re and received a gunshot wound to his head. He died on the spot, said CMP (north) Deputy

Commissioner Paritash Gosh. His body was later sent to Chit-tagong Medical College for a post mortem examination.

RAB 7 arrested two young men yesterday after his uncle, Md Sumon, � led a murder case with Panchlaish police accusing four to � ve unidenti� ed persons. Babu, 24 and Sayem, 22, were arrested from Mohammadpur area around 2:30pm, said ASP Shohel Mahmud of RAB 7.

Following the incident, the police had also detained Del-war Sheikh, who owns a facto-ry of aluminium cookware in the area, but released him after questioning, said DC Paritash.

While locals blame extor-tion behind the shooting, the police have denied the claim.

DC Paritash said Delwar managed to present some clues about the murder during his in-terrogation. He, however, did not disclose details. l

RAB to get national award for wildlife conservationn Tribune Report

The government has decided to recognise the contribution of four people and organisa-tions, including Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), to conserva-tion of the wildlife.

They will be awarded with “Bangabandhu Award for Wild-life Conservation 2015” for out-standing contribution in protect-

ing environment, forest, wildlife and biodiversity. RAB will get a “special award” under the cate-gory of institutions for promot-ing wildlife-related education, research and conservation.

The three others are NISAN-Naogaon Initiatives for Society Heritage and Nature, JU teach-er Prof Mohammad Monirul Hasan Khan and M Hamid Mas-ter from Rajshahi. l

NEWS6DTTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

Erosion leaves 200 families homeless n Our Correspondent, Gaibandha

At least 200 families lost their homes and ara-ble lands in 10 villages of Gaibandha’s Saghata upazila in the last two weeks as water levels in the Jamuna River rose because of rains, caus-ing erosion.

The villages include Gobindi, Munshirhat, Sathalia, Kamarpara and Banshhata.

There are also at least a thousand families who are fearing destruction as they live close to the river.

Apart from houses, erosion has also de-stroyed a mosque, a primary school, a temple, a � eld and many key structures.

Omar Hossain of Gobindi village said yes-terday this was the second time he had been

the victim of erosion this year. He said the Water Development Board’s

local o� ce � oated a tender for placing GOB sacks from Kamarpara to Gobindi but the con-tractor was yet to begin work.

Saghata union parishad Chairman Mos-harraf Hossain Sweet blamed Water Develop-ment Board for the delay in starting the work.

“We have received funds but Water Devel-opment Board o� cials are yet to take action,” he said.

Chandra Sekhar, sub-assistant engineer of Water Development Board’s Gaibandha o� ce, said Tk1.16 crore had been earmarked for the project aimed at preventing erosion in a 100m area. He said the project would be initiated soon. l

RejoinderSanowara Group has protested a report titled “Kazi Farms: Ex-MP son active to grab its land in Ctg,” published in the Dhaka Tribune on May 31.

It said Kazi Farms Group has already re-ceived the sale deed and the possession of 113 acres out of 320 acres of land it had agreed to purchase from ex-MP Nurul Islam-owned Sa-nowara Group.

In two separate emails last December, Sanowara Group requested Kazi Farms to return the original sale deed, which was earlier given for perusal and inspection, and to � x up a date for a joint survey to demarcate the land.

Although Kazi Farm had promised swift action then, no initiative was later taken, Sa-nowara Group added.

The rejoinder read that no had tried to collect comments on this regard from the ex-MP’s son, also the DGM of Sanowara Group. Ex-UP member Nasir had denied allegations raised in the article, it added. l

Murder accused shot deadn Our Correspondent, Comilla

An accused murderer was shot dead in Kata-beel area in the city yesterday.

The deceased was identi� ed as Rana,23, son of Abdul Jalil Mian of Sujanagar area.

According local sources, one Janu Mian was murdered on 4 June, 2014. Rana was one the accused of the incident.

In the morning, Rana went out from home to appear the court. At one stage, cohorts of Janu shot him to death on the way.

On information, police went to the spot and recovered the body, said Khorshed Alam, o� cer-in-charge of Kotwali Model police sta-tion.

Rana was an accused of several cases including murder and � rearms, said the OC.

The father of Rana � led a murder case ac-cusing 12 persons with the police station. l

Suspected robber killed in gun� ght in Cox’s Bazarn Our Correspondent, Cox’sBazar

An alleged robber was killed in a gun� ght with police at Cahkaria upazila in the district yesterday.

The deceased was identi� ed as Ali Ajgar,30, son of Nurul Amin of Dumkhali area.

Probhash Chandra Dhar, o� cer-in-charge of Chakaria police station said on a tip-o� , the police conducted a drive in Khutkhali area of the upazila while a gang of robbers were tak-ing preparation to commit a robbery in the area.

Sensing the presence of police, the robbers opened � re on the law enforcers, prompting them to retaliate that triggered a gun battle, he said.

Ajgar was caught in the line of � re and died on the spot.

Three policemen were also injured during the gun� ght. Police arrested an injured rob-ber named Mohammad Shekha.

The law enforcers also recovered two � re-arms and 13 bullets from the spot.

The body was sent to Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital morgue. l

NEWS 7D

TTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

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F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 36 29Chittagong 34 27Rajshahi 37 28Rangpur 34 26Khulna 36 27Barisal 35 27Sylhet 32 24Cox’s Bazar 33 26

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THURSDAY, JUNE 4

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN

Road safety committee not formed in 12 yearsn Our Correspondent, Sylhet

A committee for ensuring safe roads to curb road fatalities in Sylhet is yet to see light, al-though the Road Communication and Bridges Ministry issued a circular in this connection 12 years ago.

On March 9, 2003, the then Communica-tion Ministry issued a circular to establish a committee for ensuring road safety in the city. This correspondent collected the circular from BRAC Road Safety Programme, a project working for checking road accidents country-wide.

In the circular, the ministry urged the au-thorities concerned to constitute two commit-tees at the district and city levels with Sylhet Deputy Commissioner and Sylhet Metropoli-tan Police Commissioner as chairs respective-ly and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) o� cials as member secretaries.

Members of Regional Transport Commit-tee, Upazila Road Safety Committee presi-dent, District and Metro level information

o� cers, civil surgeon, executive engineers of Roads and Highways Department, four repre-sentatives from di� erent educational institu-tions and a representative from Nirapod Sarak Chai movement will be other members of the committee, said the circular.

Under the committees, National Road Safety Committee will demarcate important roads, create awareness among people, prepare re-ports on state of driving license, vehicle regis-tration and implement tra� c rules. Commit-tee meetings will be held every three months, the circular directed.

However, the commissioners said they were not aware of the circular.

Deputy Commissioner Md Shahidul Islam said he was holding meetings with the District Development Coordination Committee in this regard.

SMP Commissioner Kamrul Ahsan said: “Police is working for ensuring road safety. I am not informed about any road safety com-mittee.”

Abdul Momen, deputy director of BRTA Sylhet o� ce, said: “Committees at the upazila level have been formed, however, commit-tees at the district and metro levels were not formed yet.”

He admitted of receiving the circular.Parvez Koiri, social communicator of BRAC

Road Safety Programme, said: “We are relent-lessly working for safe roads. If the Road Safe-ty Committee is formed in Sylhet, it would be easier for us to work. We have been pressuris-ing the authorities concerned to from it since long. Recently they assured us that the com-mittees will be formed soon.” l

Councillor Nizam takes charge of RCC mayorn Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

Councillor Nizam Ul Azim yesterday took the charge of acting mayor of Rajshahi City Cor-poration (RCC) following the suspension of mayor Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul.

Chief Executive O� cer of the RCC Ajahar Ali handed over all charges to the acting may-or Nizam in presence of sta� s and councillors of the corporation in the morning.

Earlier, a letter from Ministry of Local Gov-ernment and Rural Development had reached to the city corporation bhaban on Monday evening, said RCC Public Relations O� cer Amirul Karim.

Amirul Karim said Azim, councillor from ward 21 of the city corporation, has been made acting mayor to run regular activities of the corporation smoothly.

On May 7, Mayor Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul was suspended as a district court accepted a charge sheet against him in several cases, in-cluding police constable Siddhartha Sarker murder case in Rajshahi.

According to city corporation act, if charge sheet is accepted against any City Corporations mayor and councillor, the government may suspend him in consultation with the Election Commission. Now, Bulbul remains absconding.

Meanwhile, a high court bench on May 28 issued a rule to the ministry of local govern-ment regarding why the suspension order of mayor Bulbul would not be declared illegal, con� rmed Advocate Mohammad Aminul Haque, lawyer on behalf of petitioner Bulbul.

Bench of Justice Mirja Hussain Haidar and Justice AKM Jahurul Haque issued the rule.

The bench has also stayed the suspension order for a month, Aminul also said.Azim sought all-out cooperation from all quarters to make the corporation a full-� edged public institution. l

Man attempts to kill wife over family feud n Tribune Report

A man allegedly tried to kill his wife over fam-ily dispute at Raozan upazila in Chittagong yesterday.

O� cer-in-Charge of Raozan police station (OC) Pradip Kumar Das told the Dhaka Trib-une that the incident took place in Manchipa-ra area of Kadampur.

Chittagong Medical College Hospital Po-lice Outpost’s Nayek Hamidur Rahman said the critically injured Josna Akhtar, 33, wife of Hashem Azad was admitted to the CMCH.

Quoting family members, Nayek Hamid said an altercation took place between the couple in the morning over family dispute where Hashem tried to slice the throat of Jos-na by a sharp object, leaving her critically in-jured. l

Minor girl raped n Our Correspondent, Brahmanbaria

A 9-year old schoolgirl was raped at Moni-pur village under Pattar union of Bijoynagar upazila of the district yesterday.

Faruk Mian, the local UP member, said the girl lived in her relative’s house. On the day, she was going to the school. At one stage, Kalu Mian, 18, son of Kuddus Mian of Mashaura village took her to nearby � eld forcefully and raped. He � ed the scene leaving the girl un-conscious. The girl was rescued around 9pm in critical condition. l

On March 9, 2003, the then Communication Ministry issued a circular to establish a committee for ensuring road safety in the city

WORLD8DTTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

HRW: Jordan stranding hundreds of Syria refugees in desertn AFP, Amman

Human Rights Watch accused Jordan yester-day of leaving hundreds of Syrian refugees stranded in the desert along its border with little access to aid after closing informal fron-tier crossings.

“Jordanian authorities have severely re-stricted” the movement since March of ref-ugees � eeing the war in Syria, the watchdog said in a statement.

The group said it had analysed satellite im-agery that showed large build-ups of refugees stranded just inside Jordanian territory after informal border crossings were shut.

HRW said those trapped “have only limited access to food, water, and medical assistance.”

“Jordan should allow the stranded peo-ple to move further into Jordan, and let UN-

HCR, the UN refugee agency, register them as asylum seekers,” the New York-based rights group said.

Jordan kept all border crossings with Syr-ia open until mid-2013, after which it began to impose limits on the number of crossing points and the amount of refugees it allowed to enter, HRW said.

“Jordan has gone to great lengths to meet the needs of the Syrian refugees,” said Nadim Houry, the group’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director.

“But that is no excuse to abandon new-er arrivals in remote border areas for weeks without e� ective protection and regular aid access.”

Some 600,000 Syrian refugees have regis-tered with the UN in Jordan, which says it is hosting up to 1.5 million Syrians informally. l

Obama signs surveillance limits into lawn AFP, Washington

President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed into law landmark legislation ending the government’s bulk telephone data dragnet, signi� cantly reversing American policy by reining in the most controversial surveillance program since 9/11.

The bill was given � nal passage earlier Tuesday by the US Senate, after being ap-proved by the House several days earlier.

The measure reauthorizes key national secu-rity programs that had lapsed early this week.

The bill halts the National Security Agen-cy’s ability to scoop up and store metadata – telephone numbers, dates and times of calls – from millions of Americans who have no connection to terrorism.

It shifts responsibility for storing the data to telephone companies, allowing authorities to access the information only with a warrant from a secret counterterror court that identi-� es a speci� c person or group of people sus-pected of terror ties.

The vote follows days of sharp debate on the � oor, with many Republicans split over their support for strong counterterror meas-ures and the need for personal privacy pro-tections in the wake of former NSA contrac-tor Edward Snowden’s bombshell revelations about the bulk data dragnet in 2013. l

Russia slams EU move against envoys n AFP, Moscow

Moscow yesterday slammed Brussels’ deci-sion to limit access to the European parlia-ment to just two Russian envoys. European parliament head Martin Schulz on Tuesday said he was limiting access to the in-stitution to the Russian ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, and one other diplomat.

The move came in retaliation for a travel ban imposed by Moscow on 89 Europeans over the Ukraine crisis which Russia bills as its answer to EU sanctions.

Brussels would now assess requests for ac-cess to the European parliament by Russian lawmakers on a case-by-case basis.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier this week ridiculed the “absurdity” of EU complaints, insisting that Russia’s re-sponse merely followed Western sanctions against the Kremlin. l

Syria regime barrel bombs kill 24, including childrenn AFP, Beirut

At least 24 people, including eight children, were killed in government barrel bomb at-tacks in northern Syria yesterday, a monitor-ing group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths came in two incidents, in Aleppo province in the north of the country and Idlib province in the northwest.

In Tal Rifaat in Aleppo, 16 people were killed, including eight children, when govern-ment helicopters dropped at least four barrel

bombs, the Britain-based monitor said.And in Idlib province, eight members of

one family were killed in a barrel bomb attack in the town of Kafr Sijna.

The Observatory, which relies on a net-work of sources on the ground, said the tolls in both incidents were expected to rise because of the number of people seriously wounded.

Regime barrel bombs – crude weapons made of containers packed with explosives – have often struck schools, hospitals and mar-kets in Syria.

Rights groups criticise them as indiscrimi-nate, saying they kill a disproportionate num-ber of civilians.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has de-nied that his forces use the weapons, but evi-dence collected by activists and rights groups includes footage of the barrels being pushed from army helicopters.

More than 220,000 people have been killed in Syria since the con� ict began in March 2011 with anti-government demon-strations that were met with a regime crackdown. l

Hopes fade in China capsize search n Reuters, Jianli

Rescuers searched a sunken cruise ship in the Yangtze River yesterday for more than 400 missing people, many of them elderly, but hopes of � nding more survivors were fading in what could be China’s worst shipping disas-ter in almost 70 years.

State television showed rescuers, some standing gingerly on the upturned hull of the Eastern Star, and scores of divers working through the night.

Only 14 people, including the ship’s cap-tain, have been found alive since the ship capsized in a freak tornado on Monday night with 456 people on board. Just 19 bodies have been recovered.

Rescuers have not slackened o� , even though about 200 divers face di� culties such as cabin doors blocked by tables and beds. There is also the fear that rashly cutting holes in the hull could burst air pockets keeping people alive.

“Although there’s lots of work to do, saving people is still being put � rst,” Transport Minis-try spokesman Xu Chengguang told reporters.

State television showed a rain-soaked Pre-mier Li Keqiang, who is on the scene overseeing rescue e� orts, bowing in respect to two bodies laid out on the deck of a boat covered in sheets.

The ship was on an 11-day voyage up-stream from the city of Nanjing, near Shang-hai, to Chongqing.

The search area has been expanded up to 220 km (135 miles) downstream suggesting that bodies could have been swept far away from where the ship foundered.

Three of the bodies were found 50 km (30 miles) away near Yueyang city in neighbour-ing Hunan province, state media said. l

An injured man gestures at a site hit by what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the old city of Aleppo yesterday REUTERS

WORLD 9D

TTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

Saudi-coalition pummels Yemenn AFP, Sanaa

Saudi-led coalition warplanes intensi� ed raids on Yemen’s capital yesterday, as Washington con� rmed a top US diplomat had met representatives of Iran-backed rebels to try to revive proposed Geneva peace talks.

The UN Security Council appealed for a new humanitarian cease� re and peace talks as soon as possible to end � ghting that has killed at least 2,000 people since March.

Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and its re-gional allies have been bombing the rebels since late March to try to restore Yemen’s exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to power.

Dozens of explosions rocked the cap-ital as coalition jets pounded Sanaa for hours from early yesterday. At least three people were killed and 11 wounded in the raids, a medical source told AFP. l

US envoy: Fight against Islamic State could take ‘generation or more’n AFP, Doha

The Islamic State group is a “global threat” which will take a generation or more to de-feat, Washington’s envoy for the US-led coali-tion � ghting the jihadists said yesterday.

Despite “strategic momentum” against IS – or Daesh as he called it – General John Allen conceded that the � ght would continue for several years in a keynote speech to the US-Is-lamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar.

And he added that if IS was not defeated it could “wreak havoc on the progress of hu-manity.”

“This will be a long campaign,” he said. “Defeating Daesh’s ideology will likely

take a generation or more. But we can and we must rise to this challenge.

“In an age when we are more interconnect-

ed that at any other time in human history, Daesh is a global threat.”

In a wide-ranging speech, Allen added that IS also poses a new type of threat because of its “depravity.”

“As someone who has spent nearly four decades as a United States marine, I have come closer than many to the reality of inhu-manity.

“But I have never seen before the kinds of depravity and brutality in this region that ISIL represents and, in fact, that ISIL celebrates,” he added, using an alternative acronym for IS.

Allen was speaking the day after attending talks in Paris with ministers from around 20 coalition countries.

The meeting followed the fall of the city of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province Anbar, to IS.

That loss has been described as the worst defeat for the coalition since it formed nearly a year ago.

US Pentagon chief Ashton Carter blamed Iraqi forces, saying there was “an issue with the will of the Iraqis to � ght,” in comments that angered Baghdad.

Iraq on Tuesday pleaded for more global support in the � ght against IS.

The loss of Ramadi in Iraq plus the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria has led some to ques-tion the e� ectiveness of the US-led coalition in recent weeks.

Allen said the coalition had achieved some gains against the extremists.

He noted that IS had been defeated in many places in Iraq and that it has “lost over 25 percent” of the populated territory it once held in the country. l

Australia limits MH370 search n AFP, Sydney

The hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will not be expanded be-yond its current area without speci� c new leads, Australian o� cials said yesterday.

In April, more than a year after the plane vanished en route from Kuala Lum-pur to Beijing with 239 people on board, Malaysia, Australia and China announced that the search zone would double in size.

This boosted the search area of the re-mote southern Indian Ocean to 120,000 square kilometres. But yesterday, the Australian-led Joint Agency Coordina-tion Centre said it would not expand the search without new data.

The hunt for the aircraft, which disap-peared on March 8 last year, has been a complex undertaking, with Australia in-itially concentrating on a remote 60,000 square kilometre area of the ocean far o� its west coast.

No wreckage from MH370 has ever been found in one of aviation’s great mys-teries. l

Philippine leader likens China to Nazi Germanyn AFP, Tokyo

Philippine President Benigno Aquino likened present-day China to Nazi Germany yester-day during a speech in Japan, hinting the world cannot continue to appease Beijing as it claims ever-more territory in the South Chi-na Sea.

The comments come as disquiet grows over the quickening pace of China’s land rec-lamation programme in international waters, including its construction of a runway long enough for large military planes.

“I’m an amateur student of history and I’m reminded of... how Germany was testing the

waters and what the response was by various other European powers,” he said, referring to the Nazis’ territorial conquests in the months before the outbreak of World War II.

“But unfortunately, up to the annexation of the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, the an-nexation of the entire country of Czechoslo-vakia, nobody said stop.

“If somebody said stop to (Adolf) Hitler at that point in time, or to Germany at that time, would we have avoided World War II?”

The comments sparked anger in Beijing, where foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was “deeply shocked and dissatis� ed with the groundless remarks.” l

S Korea tests missile capable of hitting all of Northn Reuters, Seoul

South Korea yesterday test-launched a new ballistic missile that can hit all of North Korea that lets Seoul extend the weapon’s range to up to 800 km (500 miles), the president’s o� ce said.

President Park Geun-hye made a rare visit to a missile base to watch the launch of the guided missile, which will be a key part of the South’s defence against its neighbour’s nuclear and missile threat.

The launch comes a month after the North said it test-� red a subma-rine-launched ballistic missile. l

Syrian army battles IS in northeast Syrian Reuters, Beirut

Syrian troops and militia fought � erce battles with Islamic State � ghters in Syria’s northeast overnight, war monitors and state media said yesterday, as both sides vie for control of ter-ritory near the Iraqi frontier.

Some of the biggest battles took place near a prison just south of Hasaka city after Islamic State set o� a bomb close by, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

State television also reported the clashes, saying they were fought around the prison under construction. The surrounding Hasaka province, the country’s northeastern triangle bordering on Turkey and Iraq, is a strategic area because it links up Islamic State-held land in Syria and Iraq. l

This undated � le image posted on a militant website in 2014, which has been veri� ed by AP reporting, shows � ghters from the Islamic State marching in Raqqa, Syria. The Associated Press has compiled a detailed picture of European girls and young women who join extremist groups AP

ADVERTISEMENT10DT

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

11D

TEDITORIALTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

INSIDE

We welcome the progress being made by Bangladesh and India in negotiating tran-sit and transshipment fees and charges on cargo movements.

A joint technical committee has been formed to review fees in compliance with international conventions, ahead of

formal discussions on bilateral agreements during the forthcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The new agreement will allow Bangladesh more use of channels for trade with Bhutan and Nepal and help cut trade costs for both countries. The mooted deal on transshipment by inland waterways is also complement-ed by recent signs of progress on opening up bus services linking Chittagong and Khulna with Kolkata and Shillong,

Given the slow progress of talks on long-running trans-shipment issues, it is encouraging to see the pace pick up. This bodes well for improving relations on other key bilateral issues.

Building and integrating new transit links is in the common interest of both our nations. Agreeing new deals to improve connectivity is imperative to help grow trade.

Developing new transit links can generate increased transit fees for Bangladesh while help-ing both India and Bangladesh’s economies by dramatically reducing transportation times and costs and opening up new opportunities.

We hope the successful implementation of these initiatives will pave the way for Saarc and SAFTA to push ahead in lowering barriers and building closer economic ties across all countries in our region.

Improving connectivity is in the common interest

Move ahead with transit deals

The live circusAllowing so many people to move into the city while we are way overpopulat-ed already has created this unplanned mess we call Dhaka

Here comes the budgetI � nd comfort in the large foreign ex-change reserve. However, I am not okay with the huge revenue earnings target

The shrinking Indian walletIndians may have bene� tted from eco-nomic liberalisation policies, but that need not translate into sustained growth in real incomes

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207

Email letters.dt@dhakatribune.com

Send us your Op-Ed articles:opinion.dt@dhakatribune.

com www.dhakatribune.com

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PAGE 12

PAGE 13

PAGE 14

BIGSTOCK

OPINION12DT

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

n Raihan Hadi

Dhaka is truly the most fascinating city there is right now, I am serious! As a child, I used to plead with my parents to take me to a circus

to watch artists do their tricks and perform unnatural acts at which I would stare in awe, and later burst into applause, because that’s all that would be left to do.

Ever since I came back to Bangladesh � ve years ago, I never had the chance to feel that my dream to see a circus was ever ful� lled, because of my city, Dhaka -- which is a live circus that nobody should miss!

First of all, Dhaka successfully trans-formed into a modern-day melting pot quite some time ago. Not just a mixture of people from many di� erent places; there are just too many people here. Too many people to care for, to be honest.

From the start of our day, we endure the long tra� c, with the simultaneous construc-tion of all the � yovers amid everything else, and we are too busy and panicked to get to work on time to worry about how all that dust and pollution is a� ecting our lives.

There are misbehaving chau� eurs of private cars who think they just own the roads, and are allowed to shout out slurs at pedestrians, rickshaw-pullers, and CNG minicab drivers accompanied by their

orchestra of horns. Plus, most of them have given a “heads-up” that they are above and beyond the law, unless and until they are stopped by the heroes of the city for their snack money.

There are the heat-stunned tra� c sergeants who have no idea about the idle signal behind which people are being slow-roasted, while they are letting vehicles at the other signal pass for what seems to be light years. While all this is happening, the rickshaw-pullers are also practicing for their next Olympic synchronised rickshaw-pulling event, sometimes which accidentally rips o� some woman’s scarf, or puts a dent on someone’s fender.

The bikers around the city are the most wanted superstars of this century. The one important reason that they purchased a bike was to become heroes who do not need the laws of the road.

They don’t stop at signals, they don’t know that a thing called “good behaviour” exists, and they will use pavements like they were made exclusively for bikers. Not just that, if you or your rickshaw or CNG is

standing in front of them at a signal, they will start kicking the vehicle and verbally abusing the driver to move until they do, and then they disappear into the setting sun, or more appropriately, settling dust.

The latest game in the city is that of vans (otherwise known as microbuses) picking up complete strangers out of nowhere and demanding large sums of money from them -- failing to do so will de� nitely cost them their lives.

If not that, they are picking up little girls or adult women to do a bit of rub and tug, fol-lowed by a little rape game that is completely alright with us, because we are just too busy with our lives, and the most we are willing to do about such things is to put up angry statuses on Facebook, or tweet about it, that cause a further stir among radical feminists and other regular people because someone got the grammar wrong.

Nothing stops for anything in glorious Dhaka city nowadays. Tell me something, when was the last time you received some good manners and gentle behaviour from another fellow pedestrian? Someone who

apologised for crossing paths and accidental-ly stepping on your heels? That’s right, you cannot remember! If especially you are some-where like Gawsia or New Market, people trampling on your feet is the most common thing, and it is you who should be sorry for getting in their way.

Your entertainment does not stop there. If you are between jobs and strolling around just for kicks, you will � nd vendors on the street selling the world to you. Whether or not the pavements are blocked and their presence is creating a barrier for people to walk normally is not their concern because they don’t have anywhere else to go and sell their stu� to put food in the mouths of their toddlers.

And is that our responsibility? Well of course! I’m surprised that my question surprised you! Can’t you see how authority is too important and too busy doing their thing? Is it really their responsibility to take care of everyone? Have you checked out the latest publications in the gazette?

Should I get started on the heads of the two divisions of the city? You know, the one that wants to make the city more bike-friendly (as if it’s not enough already) and another who has that smile that makes you forget about every other smile. They are rich people who have no idea how poverty or the streets work. They will keep making promises that will remain unful� lled, and we will continue to su� er. They don’t talk about setting up more public toilets or more bus stops or more drinking water facilities because they imagine we do not need them at all.

Allowing so many people to move into the city while we are way overpopulated already has created this unplanned mess we call Dhaka. There are no congestion charges here

so you are free and welcome to pollute this place, just make sure you pay your dues to those in uniforms carrying arms. There are thousands of restaurants, where you can sit down and take numerous sel� es with your food, and that makes your day brilliant! You don’t have to care about a thing because, maybe, sometime into the near future, you will probably leave for a better place abroad and Dhaka will still be rotting.

Dhaka does not need bicycle-friendly zones or sweet smiles anymore. What this live circus needs is a real good cleaning job, some plumbing around here and there, and most importantly, a permanent solution for all the congestion, appropriate pavements, public toilets etc.

And if the mayors are not yet ready to stand up and start doing things immediately, maybe in� uential businessmen with big bank balances should come forward and, at least, do it all for them in the name of CSR. Maybe the performers of this circus will vote for them next time?

What is really wrong with this city is that some of us angry writers cannot unite enough people to do something about any situation at all. Why should we complain when all that is expected of us is to be like dolls and say nothing against anything? We keep writing for you to stop and notice things around you a little bit.

Maybe one day one of these articles will be strong enough to move some of you to do something. Maybe some of us will be hacked to death by then, but our souls will be happy to know that some of you stood up and did something. l

Raihan Hadi is Founder, Ideas for Bangladesh, and Deputy Secretary, Korea-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

The live circus

Allowing so many people to move into the city while we are way overpopulated already has created this unplanned mess we call Dhaka

DHAKA TRIBUNE

OPINION 13D

TTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

n Mamun Rashid

The budget numbers are almost out. There is possibly no need for the � nance minister to give a lengthy speech on the budget in parliament

and end up feeling like he had the wind knocked out of him. A crisp power point presentation, along with a pre� x highlighting the achievements and the vision of the ruling party is enough. The parties concerned can easily access the full text or the � nance bill from the Internet or through their accounting or tax advisers.

Thanks to the very pro-active media in Bangladesh, we have a respectable visibility of the budget numbers. The total budget was thought to be around Tk290,000cr with an ADP size of Tk92,000cr. In order to accommodate the many last-minute wishes and demands, it is now rumoured to have become more than Tk300,000cr with an ADP of Tk97,000cr.

I am told that the last Tk5,000cr in ADP addition came from nobody other than the PM herself. So, the � nance division was supposed to back-calculate the numbers to adjust with the new realities.

Our � nance minister keeps on telling us that his wish is to make our budget outlay to be 25% of the country’s GDP. If our GDP is Tk1,400,000cr, the FY2016 budget is almost 21% of our GDP. Congrats to Mr � nance min-ister! This is also his eighth budget for this republic.

The � nance minister also wishes our tax/GDP ratio would go up from the present 11% to 14% of the GDP. I guess here is the shoe-pinching for him and for us all. The FY2014 budget wanted Tk136,000cr to be realised through NBR sources -- income tax, VAT, and customs duty.

Ultimately, the number had to be adjusted downward to Tk125,000cr. The outgoing � s-cal estimated NBR earnings of Tk149,000cr. The estimate has already been adjusted downwards to Tk135,000cr income tax, down by more than Tk8,000cr; it’s the same with VAT, with customs duty realisation show-ing an upside of Tk2,000cr with increased imports.

While the NBR is showing a Tk140,000cr shortfall, analysts are saying it could be much higher. The upcoming budget is projecting NBR source revenue earnings of Tk170,000cr. With the present governance structure, ca-pacity, and most importantly, the haphazard way the budget numbers have been man-aged, it is turning out to be a next-to-impos-sible challenge.

I am very much okay with the 5.14% budget de� cit. I � nd comfort in the large for-eign exchange reserve, the weak opposition, next to no political threats, and the heavy investment in infrastructure building. How-ever, I am not okay with the huge revenue earnings target.

Despite a large increase in consumer spending and domestic market demand, we are not seeing a spike in our VAT collection, caused due to package rates or blanket ar-rangements or otherwise. With a tremendous rise in consumerism and the service industry, our VAT collection should at least be double

of what it is, but here we are talking of more than $1bn downsizing.

Indonesia, Philippines, or even India had shown a spike in VAT earnings with the ex-pansion of organised and unorganised retail. On the income tax front, we knew how rich one of our mayoral candidates was when he was asked to comment on low assets and tax payment.

As we increasingly get interfaced with global markets with expanding regional

integration, we have to rationalise our tari� structure even further. In that case, I will be all-too surprised to see Bangladesh achieving its Tk211,000cr (including non-NBR sources) revenue target during FY2016s.

We are happy to see our budget allocation going up and up. We should not forget that we want ourselves to be in the league of “middle income countries.” In that case, our per capita income rise is not enough by itself. We need improvements in the standard of

living as well as access to better education and health services.

With a large passenger population, we have to keep on allocating money for a social safety net too. Nor can we forget about the loss-making public enterprises, or dare rationalise our defense budget. Especially when our honourable PM wants us to start exporting arms.

Development partners seemed to be doing enough despite a weak governance and a lack of political harmony. Some of them are said to be reaching the point of saturation. Private investment is low for many known reasons.

What should we do then? Even a litera-ture-student-turned-economic-commenta-tor would say that we need to mobilise our internal resources. We have to increase our revenue earnings.

We have to keep on allowing the NGOs/MFIs to bring in further synergy in rural Bangladesh, encourage non-farm agriculture, and make further investments into urban private businesses. l

Mamun Rashid is a business professor and � nancial sector entrepreneur.

Here comes the budget

I � nd comfort in the large foreign exchange reserve, next to no political threats, and the heavy investment in infrastructure building. However, I am not okay with the huge revenue earnings target

BIGSTOCK

OPINION14DT

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

n Sourajit Aiyer

Politicians, � lm stars, business tycoons, cricketers, and the com-mon man have all had their share of screen time in the Indian media

in recent years. One common thing among all these heterogeneous groups in society is their wallet. The average Indian wallet has grown poorer from FY2008 to FY2014. The actual impact on speci� c segments of society may di� er depending on the skewness of income levels and impact of in� ation items. However, the experience has been largely negative for the Indian wallet on average in this period.

Look at Figure 1: It shows the di� erential between the YoY change in India’s Per Capita Net National Product (PC NNP) at current prices and the YoY change in the Consumer Price In� ation index (CPI). Both metrics re� ect an average scenario for India, since both look at India as a whole and are not based on individual segments.

PC NNP re� ects the per capita income of an Indian, ie how much an average Indian earns and how this has grown each year. The CPI re� ects the price of a typical basket of goods an Indian consumer buys, and how its price has risen each year.

This di� erential is nothing but the growth in real income, ie growth in Indians’ income after accounting for the rising prices. This

di� erential actually moved northwards from 2004 to 2008. This period coincides with the initial years of the UPA government, and it indicates that the average Indian wallet was growing larger till 2008.

However, it went on a southwards trend from 2008; the year of the � nancial crash and recession globally, combined with several scams in India. Moreover, it reached minimal levels by � scal year 2013, a clue why many Indian voters were disgruntled with the previous government during the election campaigning in early 2014.

The objective of this article is not to con-nect the period from 2008 to 2014 with any speci� c political party per se. The motive is only to understand how the period fared for the average Indian wallet. Indians actually seem to have grown poorer, on an average, in terms of the growth in their real incomes between the years 2009 to 2014.

One can argue that Wholesale Price

In� ation index (WPI) should have been used instead of CPI. However, the CPI is a more relevant metric since it considers the

basket a “typical consumer” is buying, and its price thereof. In any case, calculating the di� erential on the basis of WPI would also show a similar trend as seen in the case of CPI.

Figure 2 shows the YoY growth trends of Per Capita NNP in current price and Consum-er Price In� ation index. This shows a conver-gence between per capita income growth and in� ation growth in the years immediately after 2008, ie 2008 to 2010. In this period, in-� ation was rising rapidly due to the impact of food and oil prices; while income was slowly declining as the economy slowed down due to a freeze on capex investment cycle by Indi-an companies.

From 2011 to 2013, the dip in income growth became steeper as the economic

slowdown turned into a stranglehold, while in� ation became � attish following some urgent steps by the then government in

controlling gold imports. Resultantly, the di� erential did improve in these two years, as seen by a slight uptick in 2011 and 2012 in Figure 1.

However, this has not really sustained, and the di� erential declined even further than earlier lows. In the � scal years 2013 and 2014, in� ation may have remained � attish on the back of the decline in oil prices and commodity prices globally.

However, income levels have not really picked up as yet, and this really led to the negative growth in real income growth as seen during those years.

Income growth remains an area of con-cern, since this largely depends on an uptick on the level of economic activity and job creation, which are themselves factors of the revival of the investment cycle by Indian and foreign companies into India projects. The new government has been taking decisive steps by showcasing India as an invest-ment-friendly country to Indian and foreign companies, and fast-tracking project approv-als and processing.

Bottom-line: Indians may have bene� t-ted from economic liberalisation policies over the last few years, but that need not necessarily translate into sustained growth in real incomes in their wallets. The average Indian wallet actually got thinner in the years FY2008 to FY2014. Indians will wait and see how the new government’s policies address this critical socio-economic aspect of their everyday lives. l

Sourajit Aiyer has written in over 30 publications globally, and is the author of the e-Book “Flying with the Winged Elephant: Niche themes that may emerge in India for global businesses.” This article � rst appeared in South Asia Monitor, India.

The shrinking Indian wallet

Figure 1: Di� erential between YoY change in Per Capita NNP in current price and Consumer Price In� ation index

Figure 2: Trend in YoY growth Rates of Per Capita NNP in current price and Consumer Price In� a-tion index

BIG

STO

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15D

TBusiness THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

Naimi: Saudi oil strategy working, sees stronger demand

17OECD, rich nations’ club turns into ‘do-tank’

19RBI cuts rates to put Indian growth on � rmer footing

16 BTRC revenue declines 32% 20

Home Ministry budget to jump 9.22%n Asif Showkat Kallol

The government is likely to allocate Tk12,403.85 crore for the Ministry of Home A� airs in the 2015-16 � scal budget with a 9.22% jump over last year’s outlay.

However, this will be Tk338.79 crore low-er than the amount that the ministry had got in the outgoing 2014-15 � scal year’s revised budget, sources said.

Initially, the home ministry got Tk11,357 crore in the budget which was later revised to Tk12,742.63 crore. The additional amount was mostly spent for the import of arms and ammunition and the elevated fuel cost during the political turmoil earlier this year.

O� cials said that in the upcoming � scal year, at least 10 development projects will be implemented by the home ministry including the specialised burn hospital, construction of a central jail at Keraniganj in the outskirts of Dhaka. This jail will house only the under-tri-al criminals.

State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that the specialised burn hospital will come into operation in January 2016.

Of the allocation that the ministry is like-ly to get in the upcoming budget, Tk1,188.66 crore will be used for development projects including 85 new BGB posts along the border, seven new RAB complexes, renovation of a total of 101 old police station buildings and 156 � re service centres in some of the impor-tant sub-regions.

The government will also continue a num-ber of ongoing projects. These are: the inte-gration of machine readable passport (MRP) and machine readable visa; and two Fire Ser-vice and Civil Defence projects for the devel-opment of air building and gas � re � ghting galleries and modernisation of � re securities and civil defence projects.

Three hospitals will be constructed under Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in Chuadanga, Thakurgaon and Khagrachhari districts. l

Draft rules of amended Labour Act 2013 approved n Tribune Report

The Ministry of Labour and Employment has approved the draft rules of amended Labour Act 2013, keeping a provision of depositing 0.03% of export value to the workers’ welfare fund.

Sate Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu made the announce-ment at a media brie� ng after the Tripartite Consultative Committee (TCC) meeting with representatives from the government, owners and labour at his secretariat on Tuesday.

The approved draft would be sent to the Law Ministry for vetting to publish as gazette, said Mujibul. The rules would be implement-ed after the publication of gazette, he said.

As per the draft rules, the owners of ex-port-oriented industry including the apparel

sector will contribute 0.03% of export value to the workers’ welfare fund, of which 50% will be kept for export-oriented sick indus-try and 50% will be used for the well-being of workers, said the state minister.

As per the current export value of $24.5bn, the owners’ contribution to the welfare fund would be Tk72 crore, which would amount to Tk150 crore in 2021 when the export value is expected to be $50bn.

The estimated contribution will be cut from the export value and deposited to the welfare account, said Mujibul.

The fund will be operated by the repre-sentatives of government, owners and labour, he added.

In the safety committee to be formed soon, there will have representatives from Trade Unions and Workers’ Participating Commit-

tee, added Mujibul. In absence of Trade Un-ions and Workers’ Participating Committee in the factory, Directorate of Labour or De-partment of Inspection for Factories and Es-tablishments (DIFE) will take initiative to set representative from the workers.

According to the draft rules, if the factory owners shift their factory within 25 kilometres and the workers are unwilling to relocate and resign, they will get bene� t as per the la-bour law, the minister added.

The amended law was passed on July 15, 2013 in the National Parliament through an amendment to the Labour Act 2006. l

n Tribune Report

The government is set to scrap the provision for deduction of 10% tax at source on capital gains made by the companies and partnership � rms from the � scal year 2015-16.

The initiative to withdraw the provision was made after a number of complexities arose over collection of tax, � nance ministry o� cials told the Dhaka Tribune.

In FY2014-15, the government slapped 10% tax at source on capital gains that custodian banks, merchant banks, � nancial institu-tions or Trading Right Entitlement Certi� cate (TREC)-holder companies have to deduct from the companies and partnership � rms.

However, the government has failed to col-lect the tax till date due to unavailability of actual information on net pro� t of the com-panies.

Currently, custodian banks, merchant banks and � nancial institutions or Trading Right Entitlement Certi� cate (TREC)-hold-er companies have to collect information on their own on deduction of tax at source on capital gains from companies and partnership � rms through ascertaining pro� t of the com-panies.

However, TREC holder companies found it di� cult to implement the provisions due to procedural complexities in existing trading practices by the companies and � rms.

Representatives from Bangladesh Secu-rities and Exchange Commission, Dhaka Stock Exchange, Chittagong Stock Exchange, Association of Trading Right Entitlement Certi� cate, Holders and Central Depository Bangladesh Limited already had a number of meetings with � nance minister and National Board of Revenue o� cials, demanding can-

cellation of the provision due to the complex-ity in the process.

It is almost impossible to collect neces-sary information including realised gain and acquisition costs if linked accounts are main-tained in di� erent places, according to market insiders.

Currently, about 9,791 companies have

Bene� ciary Owner’s (BO) account out of 3.2m total BO account holders. Of the number, many companies have more than one BO ac-count with di� erent houses.

“In most of the cases, the companies and the � rms maintain either more than one BO account or linked accounts of the original one with di� erent trading houses, which creates di� culties in information collection on real-ised gain and acquisition cost from di� erent houses,” an o� cial said.

As of FY2013-14, the companies have to pay capital gain tax at the time of submission of tax return at the year-end on the basis of their declared net pro� t and gain.

If scrapped, the companies will now have to pay the tax on capital gains from the stock market with their income tax returns. l

Tax on capital gains set to go

If scrapped, the companies will now have to pay the tax on capital gains from the stock market with their income tax returns

BUSINESS16DT

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

Mercantile Bank Limited has celebrated its 16th anniversary at a hotel in Dhaka. Commerce Minister, Tofail Ahmed was present as chief guest on the occasion that was presided over by the bank’s chairperson, Morshed Alam

RBI cuts rates for third time to put Indian growth on � rmer footing n Reuters, Mumbai

The RBI cut interest rates for a third time this year on Tuesday, taking advantage of subdued in� ation to lend more support to an economy that the bank itself says is not doing as well as latest impressive growth numbers suggest.

The Reserve Bank of India also left open the possibility of further cuts later this year, even with forecasts of a below-average mon-soon that could put pressure on food prices.

The quarter point reduction in the repo rate by 0.25% to 7.25% was predicted by 35 of 48 analysts polled by Reuters. Previous cuts in January and March had also been by 25 ba-sis points.

The reduction showed policymakers rec-ognised the need to put the economy on a sounder footing, regardless of data released on Friday that showed India outpaced China by growing 7.5% in the March quarter.

“We still have very weak investment. We haven’t seen a strong pick-up,” RBI Gover-nor Raghuram Rajan told a newsconference, adding that there were factors to suggest that growth was weaker than the headline num-bers made out.

“In general, the corporate results have been quite weak also suggesting that � nal de-mand is yet to pick up strongly.”

Many economists and even Rajan himself say a new way used to calculate gross domes-tic product may overstate how fast India is really growing.

India’s chief economic adviser, Arvind Subramanian, said the rate cut showed the economy was still in need of “policy support” as it recovered, and welcomed the move.

But while Rajan said the RBI would remain on the “disin� ationary path”, further easing would now depend on the outcome of India’s annual rainy season and government moves to ease the pressure on food prices, which make up almost half the basket of goods used to measure in� ation.

Government monsoon forecasts on Tues-day raised fears that India couldsu� er its � rst drought in six years.

“Going forward, room may absolutely open up if monsoon is better than expected or government action can mitigate any poten-tial rise in food prices and if energy prices stay contained,” Rajan said, vowing to “take full advantage”.

Analysts have been split about whether the RBI would ease further. A recent Reuters poll

had shown most analysts expected another 25 basis points cut between October and De-cember.

Consumer price in� ation hit a four-month low of 4.87% in April, well within the RBI’s target range of 2 to 6%.

But the central bank also projected in� ation would rise to 6% in January 2016, setting up the possibility of no more rate cuts this year.

No liquidity move Despite demands from India’s commercial banks, the RBI did not take steps to free up liquidity, which bankers had said were need-ed for them to lower lending rates further and

pass on the bene� ts of monetary easing to the broader economy.

Instead, with growth in bank lending at its lowest in almost two decades, the RBI urged banks to reduce rates quickly.

Markets had already discounted Tuesday’s cut, but weakened after a poor monsoon forecast raised questions over whether further easing would really be possible. The broader Nifty closed 2.3% down.

While India’s benchmark 10-year bonds rose 11 basis points to 7.93%, and the rupee weakened to 63.87 per dollar, having ended Monday at 63.72.

The RBI cut came just weeks after China made its third interest rate reduction in six months, but growth in India’s giant neighbour has been slowing down.

Having embarked on an easing cycle in January, the RBI’s latest move also complet-ed a reversal of the rate increases ordered by Rajan between September 2013 to January 2014, when India was su� ering double-digit in� ation.

“I would characterise the policy today as neither conservative nor aggressive. In some sense, it is a Goldilocks policy: just right given the current situation,” Rajan said. l

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan listens to a question at a news conference after the bi-monthly monetary policy review in Mumbai REUTERS

Japan’s � nance minister tight-lipped on fresh yen losses n Reuters, Tokyo

Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso on Tues-day refrained from commenting on renewed weakness in the yen, after issuing a warning last week about its slide.

Aso said on the sidelines of a Group of Sev-en � nance leaders’ gathering last week that recent declines in the yen had been “rough.”

The remark was stronger than mild warn-ings by other Japanese policymakers that while excessive turbulence was unwelcome, the yen’s declines so far had not reached alarming levels.

The dollar has continued its ascent since then, hitting a fresh 12-1/2-year high of just below 125 yen on Monday as investors bet that U S interest rates would rise later this year while Japanese monetary policy remains ul-tra-loose.

Asked on Tuesday about how the yen con-tinued to decline even after his warning, Aso said: “As a � nance minister, I do not comment on currency moves ... Back then, I only said the moves were rough.”

“I will only repeat the same thing, which is that we must continue to watch currency moves carefully,” he told a news conference after a regular cabinet meeting.

Japan’s export-reliant economy has histori-cally su� ered from a strong yen, so many poli-cymakers have welcomed limited yen declines.

But some economics and politicians have begun to worry about the drawbacks, such as boosting import costs and eroding consum-ers’ purchasing power, which could outweigh bene� ts to exporters. l

Global factory growth picks up but stays weak n Reuters, London

Global manufacturing growth accelerated slightly last month but remained weak as � rms again turned to existing orders to keep active, a business survey showed on Monday.

JPMorgan’s Global Manufacturing Pur-chasing Managers’ Index (PMI), produced with Markit, nudged up to 51.2 in May from April’s near two-year low of 51 .

May was the 30th month the index has been above the 50 level that separates growth from contraction, but some of that activity was again driven by running down old orders.

The backlogs of work sub-index came in at 49.5, its second month below breakeven.

“May PMI data signalled mild improve-ments in both the rates of expansion in global manufacturing production and new orders,” said David Hensley, a director at JPMorgan.

“Although the trend in international trade � ows remains weak and a drag on the sec-tor’s improvement, the bounces in the other indices still put us on course for a mid-year growth acceleration.”

Factories did increase headcount fast-er than last month as new orders picked up slightly, although it was still only at a moder-ate pace.

The global PMI combines survey data from countries including the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia. l

‘Going forward, room may absolutely open up if monsoon is better than expected or government action can mitigate any potential rise in food prices and if energy prices stay contained’

BUSINESS 17D

TTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

Naimi: Saudi oil strategy working, sees stronger demand n AFP, Vienna

OPEC’s strategy of not cutting production in order to maintain market share is working, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said Monday as he arrived for a meeting of the cartel to decide on output levels.

Asked if this strategy pushed by OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia was working, Ali al-Nai-mi told reporters in Vienna: “The answer is yes... Demand is picking up. Supply is slow-ing. This is a fact. The market is stabilising.”

“You can see that I am not stressed, that I am happy,” he said.

The 12-nation OPEC cartel, pumping some 30% of the world’s oil, is expected on Friday to maintain its o� cial production target of 30 million barrels per day (bpd).

Gulf members, led by Saudi Arabia, will probably resist calls to cut output as they seek to safeguard their share of a market that is plagued by a vast supply glut - fuelled part-ly by the boom in shale oil.

“OPEC is likely to con� rm its output target of 30 million barrels per day given that its strate-gy of defending market shares is bearing fruit,” said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch.

“The rapid rise in US crude oil production has been stopped and the oil price has recov-ered considerably since February.”

Naimi on Monday however refused to be drawn on what the outcome of Friday’s meet-ing would be, saying: “We haven’t even met yet ... I am willing to discuss with everybody.”

OPEC refused in November to cut its o� -cial daily oil output target of 30 million bar-rels - where it has stood for more than three and a half years - despite the glut.

The move, which sent prices sliding fur-ther, was widely regarded as a tactical at-tempt to boost demand and hurt non-OPEC output, particularly US shale producers which have higher costs.

In recent weeks, oil prices have fought back after the market plunged 60 percent be-tween June and January on the back of abun-dant supplies.

While higher prices boost producers’ reve-nues they can also weigh on demand - and in turn economic growth - harming the cartel in the long run.

However, faced with a precipitous slump in their earnings, some OPEC members - led by Iran and Venezuela - have publicly urged the cartel to cut production to support prices.

Saudi Arabia ‘on track’ But Saudi Arabia appears determined to pur-sue its strategy.

“When OPEC decided not to cut output in November, Saudi Arabia outlined its strategy to moderate runaway growth from high-cost non-OPEC suppliers, as well as stimulate global oil demand. The kingdom seems to be on track to achieve these goals,” noted Barclays analysts.

The oil market meanwhile remains well down from year-earlier levels.

Oil prices have lost almost half their value since June 2014, when Brent traded at about $115 and New York crude at almost $108 per barrel.

Experts at consultancy Energy Aspects say that the current level of $60 per barrel is caus-

ing “ample damage” to non-OPEC supplies outside of the United States.

And in reaction to the price collapse, major oil companies have slashed their exploration budgets and massively reduced their capital expenditure.

At the same time, some OPEC members - notably Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq - are in fact pumping additional supplies, taking actual OPEC output above the agreed collective ceiling.

Actual OPEC production stood at 31.21 mbpd in April, the highest level since Sep-tember 2012, according to recent data from the International Energy Agency.

In Monday morning trade, the oil market slid on renewed supply glut concerns ahead of the OPEC gathering.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for July delivery dropped 59 cents to $59.71 per barrel, while Brent for July shed 63 cents to $64.93. l

Fed’s Rosengren: E conomy growing too slowly to justify rate hike n Reuters

With little evidence the US economy is re-bounding after a very weak � rst quarter, the Federal Reserve is in no position to start rais-ing interest rates for the � rst time since 2006, a top Fed o� cial said on Monday.

“I would like to normalize (rates) as soon as possible ... but the conditions haven’t been right,” Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said, adding that there are side e� ects to keep-ing rates low for a long time. “In some sense when we start raising rates that’s good news.”

The Fed has said it will raise rates only once it sees further improvement in the labor market, and is reasonably con� dent that in-� ation is headed back to the Fed’s 2% target.

But with growth in the � rst half of the year likely to run below the economy’s potential of about 2%, “I do not expect to see timely im-provements in the unemployment rate and su� cient progress towards the 2% in� ation target,” Rosengren said. “This, in my view, makes a compelling argument for continued patience in monetary policy.”

Global risks also loom. “I’m worried about what’s happening in

Europe,” Rosengren said after his speech, adding, “It would be nice if they came to a conclusion over what’s happening in Greece.”

Athens and its euro zone and Internation-al Monetary Fund creditors are in talks over Greece’s debt and aid money, and without a deal, Greece could soon default or go bank-rupt.

“If there was a disorderly outcome in Eu-rope it would have an impact on New Eng-land,” Rosengren said.

A slowdown in China is also a concern, he said. “The things I worry the most about are the things I can least control,” he said.

Rosengren’s strongly dovish comments come as Fed policymakers prepare to meet in about two weeks to weigh a possible rate hike.

Policymakers have kept interest rates near zero since December 2008, and most, includ-ing Rosengren, have long thought they would be able to begin to lift rates this year. Even after the economy’s dismal � rst-quarter per-formance, policymakers stuck to that view, attributing the slowdown to the e� ects of a severe winter and predicting a snapback. l

IMF economists: S ome countries can just live with high debt n Reuters, Washington

Some countries with high public debt levels might be able to “just live with it,” because cutting back carries its own risks, three IMF o� cials said in a paper that disputes decades of dogma about the bene� ts of austerity.

The euro zone and other advanced econo-mies have struggled with ballooning debt in the wake of the 2007-09 global � nancial cri-sis. Some have faced pressure to satisfy mar-kets through fast � scal consolidation.

The International Monetary Fund has al-ready cautioned that cutting back on spend-ing or raising taxes too quickly after the crisis could hurt growth.

Now, IMF economists Jonathan Ostry, At-ish Ghosh and Raphael Espinoza take that ad-

vice a step further, arguing that countries able to fund themselves in markets at reasonable costs should avoid the harmful economic im-pact of austerity.

“A radical solution for high debt is to do noth-ing at all,” they write in a blog accompanying a Sta� Discussion Note, which does not repre-sent the IMF’s o� cial position, but could help

shape its policies. “Debt is bad for growth ... but it does not

follow that paying down debt is good for growth. This is a case where the cure may be worse than the disease: paying down the debt would require further distorting the econo-my, with a corresponding toll on investment and growth.”

Instead, countries can wait for their debt ratios to fall through higher economic growth or a boost in tax revenues over time.

The austerity debate has become a hot political topic in countries such as the Unit-ed Kingdom and Greece as voters protest the pain of budget cuts.

Greece’s Syriza government swept to pow-er in January promising an end to austerity, but now faces pressure for more cuts in ex-

change for cash from international lenders. The IMF economists did not mention many

speci� c countries, but cited a 2014 chart from Moody’s Analytics that put most advanced economies, including the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, solidly in the “green zone” of ample � scal space, meaning there is no rush to cut back debt.

France, Spain, Ireland should be cautious about debt, while Portugal faces “signi� cant risk.”

Japan, Italy, Greece and Cyprus face “grave risk,” meaning they must cut back, according to the chart.

“Where � scal space has run out ... debt sustainability constraints leave few options,” the three economists said in the blog. “This certainly applies to countries like Greece.” l

Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi talks to journalists as he arrives at his hotel ahead of an OPEC meeting in Vienna REUTERS

‘Where � scal space has run out ... debt sustainability constraints leave few options’

BUSINESS18DT

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

Allocation sought for ‘tourist zone’ centering Sundarbans n Tribune Business Desk

Local people have demand-ed that a speci� c allocation be made in the new national budget to establish a ‘tourist zone’ with a focus on the Sun-darbans and the archeological sites of the district to attract more tourists, reports UNB.

“Bagerhat is a potential dis-trict. The government should make necessary allocation in then new budget to establish a ‘tourist zone’ involving the world heritage side Sundar-bans and archeological sites of the district to attract tourists,” said Sheikh Akhtruzzaman, chairman of Shat Gambuj Un-ion of Bagerhat Sadar upazila.

The local people also urged the government to ensure more allocations for local gov-ernment sector to strengthen its bodies and creating jobs by setting up factories and indus-tries in the district.

As Bagerhat is one of the districts most vulnerable to climate change, it is urgent to make greater allocations in the

budget to protect the coastal people from the adverse im-pacts of climate

change, they said.Bagerhat municipality may-

or Khan Habibur Rahman said there should be district-wise allocation in the upcoming budget to promote develop-ment in true sense.

“To build Digital Bangla-desh, more allocation must be given to strengthen local gov-ernment infrastructures…ag-riculture should get more sub-sidies in the budget to increase food production,” he added.

Lower-income people demanded the government take proper steps in the budget to keep the price of essentials at a� ordable level for all and cutting the prices of agri-inputs, including fertilizer and seeds.

“Every year, we experience price hike of essentials commodities after budget, forcing us in trouble, as income of my family does not increase,” said Khadiza Begum, a house wife. l

Remittance in� ow rises by 9% in May n Tribune Report

The country’s remittance in� ow rose by 9% in May compared to the same month of the pre-vious year thanks to the business expansion and an increasing trend in manpower export, especially in the middle-eastern countries.

The expatriates sent a total of US$1.3bn re-mittance in May compared to $1.29bn in the

previous month this year and $1.21bn in the same month of the last year, according to the Bangladesh Bank data released recently.

Overseas employment in the middle-east-ern countries rose by 13.6% in May compared to the previous month, according to the data of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).

The Ministry of Labour of Saudi Arabia

overturned the ban on the recruitment of Bangladeshi manpower in February, 2015.

After lifting the ban, manpower export to the middle-eastern region increased signif-icantly, which contributed in the higher re-mittance in� ow, said a senior executive of a private bank.

Moreover, the entrepreneurs started to ex-pand their own business after a prolonged po-

litical turmoil as the lending rates in the bank-ing sector is signi� cantly going down, he said.

Of the remittance received in May, around $415m received through state-owned com-mercial banks, around $16.30m through spe-cialised banks, $870m through private com-mercial banks and over $16m through foreign commercial banks, according to the central bank data. l

German in� ation higher again in May n AFP, Frankfurt

In� ation in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, crept higher in May with consumer prices rising by 0.7% year-on-year, preliminary data showed Mon-day.

The index had risen in April by 0.5% on a 12-month basis, the federal statistics o� ce Destatis said in a statement.

Using the Harmonised In-dex of Consumer Prices (HICP) - the yardstick used by the Eu-ropean Central Bank -- in� a-tion in Germany also rose by 0.7% year-on-year in May, still way under the ECB’s annual in-� ation target of just below two

percent. The May data are still only

preliminary, since they are based on consumer price sta-tistics from only six of Germa-ny’s 16 regional states.

Final data from all 16 states will be published on June 16, Destatis said.

The data nevertheless ap-pear to con� rm that the ECB’s monetary policy measures are slowly beginning to push up in� ation.

In March, the ECB em-barked on a massive trillion euro ($1.1tn ) bond purchase programme to ward o� de� a-tion and end stagnation in the eurozone economy. l

OECD, rich nations’ club turns into ‘do-tank’ n AFP, Paris

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, derided as a “rich nations’ club” that vegetated in its Parisian chateau for decades, has rede� ned itself as the go-to re-source for economic analysis.

“When I started my career (at the French � nance ministry) in 1996, they sent me to visit the OECD. I said to myself, ‘God, I hope I don’t end up here!’” said Pascal Saint-Amans, recalling his impression of the institution as “second tier”.

But Saint-Amans, a graduate of France’s top administration school, did indeed wind up at the think-tank, joining in 2007 after the group had, in his words, “taken o� ”.

Today he heads one of the body’s biggest units, the crime-busting Centre for Tax Policy and Administration.

Many attribute the turnaround to Angel Gurria, who took over as OECD secretary gen-eral in 2005.

The worldly Mexican economist has just embarked on his third six-year mandate after the OECD’s 34 member states unanimously re-elected him last week.

He plays host Tuesday and Wednesday to the OECD Forum, an annual get-together with an A-list of guests who will include French Presi-dent Francois Hollande.

When Gurria took the helm, the OECD was a stodgy consultative body, an outgrowth of the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II and strongly associ-ated with the Western side of the Iron Curtain.

Gurria, Mexico’s � nance minister from 1998 to 2000, had made a name for himself by ably renegotiating his country’s debt with support from Washington, by far the biggest � nancial contributor to the OECD.

A decade later, he joined in with the min-isters of the Group of 20 leading economies to tackle the 2008 � nancial crisis.

Jovial, multi-lingual and tenacious, Gurria has criss-crossed the world, toting all man-ner of reports - evaluations of national school systems known as PISAs, studies on binge drinking among young people, black lists of tax havens, analyses of income inequality, economic growth forecasts...

‘We are a do-tank’ “Today the OECD is more relevant and has a greater impact, perhaps because we have better identi� ed the subjects that interest our members,” Gurria told AFP.

“We are not a think-tank, we are a ‘do-tank’, which means that the research we do is aimed at public policy-makers, not seminars or political debates,” he said.

Governments have become keen consum-ers of Gurria’s recommendations, always de-livered with a smile and no obligation.

When things got especially tense in Greece late last summer, its bailout creditors took ref-uge at the OECD’s elegant headquarters in west-ern Paris for their deliberations. In February, when the radical left Syriza government came to power in Athens, it consulted with the OECD.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he felt comfortable with the institution, even if it favours business-friendly policies such as a � exible job market, budgetary rigour and competition.

“The organisation has not become a Trot-skyist lair,” joked Saint-Amans. “The basics re-main liberal, but there is an acknowledgement of issues such as tax fairness and inequalities.”

The insti-tution, which had a budget of 357m euros ($389m) in 2014, has become a virtual recruit-ing agency for consultants.

It o� ers lu-crative short-term projects such as a stint for an energy policy analyst with three years’ experience paid at up to 6,800 euros per month - tax free.

The OECD, champion of tax fairness, itself enjoys tax-ex-empt status like other interna-tional organisa-tions.

It is not se-cretive about its salary scale, revealing that it pays its boss a base salary of 200,000 euros.

It has also begun opening up to modest and emerging e c o n o m i e s , welcoming the likes of Estonia, Chile, Israel and Slovenia into its membership.

Colombia will join soon, while Brazil, China and India enjoy “enhanced en-gagement”.

But the “world accord-ing to the OECD” is not everyone’s oyster.

Its Pro-gramme for I n t e r n a t i o n a l Student Assess-ment (PISA) evaluations are controversial, for example. Last year, ac-ademics from around the

world signed an open letter in the British dai-ly The Guardian saying that the tests are too quantitative and utilitarian.

“We fail to understand how your organ-isation has become the global arbiter of the means and ends of education around the world,” rather than the United Nations or its children’s agency UNICEF, they wrote.

The OECD’s spearheading of international negotiations against tax fraud and evasion has also been called into question.

“The process is biased” in favour of wealthy countries, said Manon Aubry of Oxfam France. “Developing countries are not involved in the negotiations, and when you are not seated at the table you wind up on the menu.” l

BUSINESS 19D

TTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

‘The basics remain liberal, but there is an acknowledgement of issues such as tax fairness and inequalities’

BUSINESS20DT

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ADB to lend $75m for Bibiyana II gas-� red power plant

n Tribune Report

Asian Development Bank signed a loan agree-ment of $75m with Summit Bibiyana II Power Company Limited to construct gas-� red pow-er plant.

The deal was signed on Tuesday to help Bangladesh address its power crisis, said an ADB press release.

“The project will bene� t households, busi-ness and industry by improving access to electricity,” said Hayato Hoshi, senior invest-ment specialist with the bank’s private sector operations department.

“It will also help to further promote private sector investment in Bangladesh’s energy sector where few major independent power producers of this size have materialised in the last decade.”

Due to frequent power outages, many in-dustrial and commercial businesses depend on ine� cient and expensive alternatives of generating electricity, such as burning diesel or oil, ADB said.

The power shortages also caused periodic load shedding and adversely impact the coun-try’s economic growth and poverty reduction e� orts.

To address power de� cits, the government of Bangladesh has a master plan to develop 12,000 megawatts (MW) of additional power capacity over the next 5 years to meet demand, increase its electri� cation rate and diversify its fuel sources including renewable energy.

The Bibiyana II Gas Power Project involves the design, engineering, construction, and operation of a 341 MW combined-cycle gas-� red power plant. l

Tofail: Largest RMG Park to be set up at Gazaria n Tribune Report

The country’s largest RMG (readymade garment) industrial park will be set up at Gazaria under Munshiganj district at a cost of US$2.3bn within the next three years.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed came up with the disclosure after a meeting with the representatives of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and Orient International Holding Company’s President Tang Xiaojie held at his secretariat o� ce in the city on Tuesday.

After a � ve-month study, the Orient Inter-national Holding Company, a Chinese � rm has placed its feasibility study report on the proposed industrial park. It costs Tk16 crore conduct the feasibility study.

“A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed soon between Bangladesh Gar-ment Manufactures and Exporters Associa-tion (BGMEA) and China’s Orient Internation-al to implement the project,” said Tofail.

“The Industrial Park will be able to employ over 2.5 lakh workers while the country will be able to export $4bn products,” said Tofail.

Among others, Senior Commerce Secre-tary Hedayet Ullah Al Mamoon and BGMEA President Atiqul Islam and other RMG manu-facturers attended the meeting. l

$210m deal signed for 341MW power plant n Aminur Rahman Rasel

A total of three international � nanciers signed contracts with the local private company Summit Bibiyana II Power Company Limit-ed and US-based GE Energy to provide $210 million for a 341MW gas-based power plant in Sylhet on June 2.

International Finance Corp, a commercial arm of the World Bank, will provide $75 mil-lion, Asian Development Bank $75 million and Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank $60 million.

The tenor of the loan is approximately 14 years. The direct loan amount is the largest given to a Bangladeshi private sector project by any of the three development agencies.

This will be the largest project � nance transactions development by a Bangladeshi company.

The proposed investment also � ts well with the regional development strategy of the three multilateral development banks.

Bangladesh su� ers shortages of power with only about 60% of the total population having access to electricity.

This investment will help in achieving the government target of 20,000MW power ca-pacity by 2020, taking electricity to an addi-tional three million consumers.

The operations and maintenance of the

plant will be carried out by China Northeast Electric Power Engineering & Service Co., Ltd.

“Apart from meeting the power demand of the country, the project is providing reliable employment opportunity during construc-tion and operational phases,” said Tariqur Rashid, deputy managing director of Summit Turbine Division.

The agreements have been singed as per the international project � nance practice while the account and security bank is Brac Bank Limited – a � rst-ever Bangladeshi Bank that has undertaken speci� ed roles in a major international � nancing transaction.

“The project will help Bangladesh alleviate its power shortages, which result in periodic loadshedding and adversely impact the coun-try’s economic growth and poverty reduction e� orts,” said Don Purka, director of Infra-structure Finance Division 1, Private Sector Operations Department of ADB.

“IFC is proud to be part of this project be-cause our investment will send a positive signal to other private sector players in Bangladesh, that are planning to develop e� cient power projects aimed at expanding access to pow-er,” said HyunChan Cho, IFC regional industry head for Infrastructure and Natural Resources.

For IDB, this is a part of its commitment for infrastructure development in its member countries and is extremely pleased with this

support to the private sector participation in the power generation capacity of Bangladesh, stated Dr Walid Abdelwahab, director, Infra-structure, at Islamic Development Bank.

Bibiyana II is producing the lowest cost electricity and will provide the most impor-tant requirement for industrial growth to the country.

Summit will keep working to provide elec-tricity to eradicate poverty and bring about inclusive sustainable growth for the people of Bangladesh with its strong � nancial and man-agement strength, said Ayesha Aziz Khan, di-rector of Summit Group.

“We have raised more than $500 million from foreign lenders over the last four years,” she added.

In 2014, Summit Industrial and Mercan-tile Corporation (Pvt.) Limited’s Meghnaghat Power Company Limited received $190 mil-lion from a consortium of lenders comprised of DEG, FMO, CDC, OFID ($120 million), Standard Chartered Bank ($40 million) and IDCOL ($30 million).

The project is in full operation now and generating 315MW of electricity.

Summit Group has interests in infrastruc-ture investment such as power generation, port, and telecommunications and is current-ly producing approximately 1200MW of elec-tricity. l

BTRC revenue declines 32% n Ishtiaq Husain

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) revenue has declined by 32% as the regulatory body failed to ful� l its target in the wake of a series of complexities with the mobile operators.

An o� cial of the telecom watchdog said BTRC deposited only Tk1,440 crore to the na-tional exchequer, in the � rst half of the � scal year 2014-15 (July to December).

Initially, the revenue collection was esti-mated to be Tk13,660 crore, and now its rev-enue collection stands at 31.56% to Tk6,902 crore for the current � scal year in its revised budget.

In the last � scal year, BTRC collected Tk10,085 crore as the government revenue was the highest in its history.

“Had the regulatory body arranged the spectrum auctions – 1,800MHz band and 2,100MHz band, the government could have earned TK3,000 crore,” Sunil Kanti Bose, top boss of the regulatory body, recently said while talking to journalists

Because of apparently unlikely arrange-ment of the spectrum auctions on June 10, BTRC will bring no loss, but it will miss the target of revenue collection in the departing � scal year.

BTRC � xed the price of per megahertz spectrum of 1,800MHz band at $3 crore and of 2,100MHz band at $2.20 crore in the auction bid.

The spectrum auctions have been deferred thrice to 10th June.

The telecom regulator became the highest non-tax revenue collector for the government over the last couples of year, senior o� cials of BTRC said, but this time they failed.

If the operators cashed owed revenues and arranged fresh spectrum auctions, collection

would rise in the next � scal year. Teletalk, the state-run mobile operator,

paid only Tk60 crore for 3G licence although the total fee was Tk1,627 crore.

Another state-owned telecom company Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) owes BTRC Tk1,680 crore, he mentioned.

Revenue collection fell short of Tk1,171 crore from private international gateway op-erators.

BTRC also planned a 40MHz spectrum auction on 700 band for LTE to earn Tk7,775 crore, but it reversed from the decision when the mobile operators showed disinterest to at-tend the auction for this band now.

Sources said in FY2012-13, BTRC earned Tk5,404 crore from operators.

The Finance Ministry upped the BTRC rev-enue target by 20% to 30%.

But compared with 2013-14 � scal year earning, BTRC’s revenue collection went down 31.56% for 2014-15.

The higher collection was driven in 2013-14 for spectrum auction of 3G mobile broad-band, and for ful� lling the biggest target, the telecom watchdog also planned for more spectrum auction this year which is now far beyond.

The Finance Ministry also sought clari� -cation on the diminutions. In its reply, BTRC said less revenue earning from the mobile phone operators impacted its total earnings.

Declining the international call termina-tion rate also led to reduction of the revenue earning. l

2007-08

2008-09

2009-102010

-11

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

2014-151,678 3,

195

2,37

1

3,0

47

6,95

8

5,40

5

10,0

85

6,90

2

Amount in taka/crore

BTRC REVENUE COLLECTION

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-JUN

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22Hot Topic

WebAble on the go

24News

BTI launches newly initiated apartment category “BTI Standard Collection”

INSIDE

Photo: Bigstock

The world in your palms

Hot TopicTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

T-JUNCTION22DT

WebAble on the go

An inspiration for young entrepreneurs

n T-Junction Desk

One is usually accustomed to hearing about the iconic stories of people like Mark Zuckerberg and Travis Kalanick whose entrepreneurial pursuits began from their dorm rooms before rising to the pinnacle of the modern tech industry. Today, let’s focus on a similar pursuittaken up by one aspiring entrepreneur and learn about his motivation, aspirations and goals.

Shadab Mahbub is a student entrepreneur, self educated web developer and digital marketing evangelist. His professional career began from the age of 17, as a freelance writer working with content publishers from all around the globe. Before taking the plunge into the startup world, Shadab worked for two years as a copywriter for Shopping Cart Elite, a leading eCommerce company hailing from Long Island, New York where he underwent extensive training on online marketing and lead teams across the world.

Inspired by complex online ecosystems, Shadab set his sights on building tools that will push cultural and human efficiency; he likes working with people who share his

vision to simplify the next generation of technology.

He co-founded WebAble with Ovick Alam and Anis Chowdhury to leverage web technology for brands and focuses on utilising different tools and past experience to increase the ROI on digital marketing while focusing on agile development, growth hacking and company culture

What are the biggest challenges you faced being an entrepreneur at your age? Being an entrepreneur is always a challenge regardless of your age. WebAble being my first startup, involved a very steep learning curve, where everyday is a race against time to meet deadlines and deliver. However, once I adopted an agile mindset, it became much easier to adapt to the dynamics of our industry.

While my skill sets are primarily technical, during the last year I learned a ton about branding from my mentors in the industry and had the opportunity to work with them on numerous projects. It definitely expanded my knowledge base and my approach to problem solving.

What exciting things will be in store for WebAble in the upcoming year? The WebAble’s upcoming rebranding project is definitely one of my highlights for the year. It addresses a lot of the realisations that we have had during the first year of operations and is going to be a huge bonus in terms of serving the needs of the Bangladeshi market. Not only that, the fact that we now have Amit Richard joining the team is also an indication of great things to come. We are aiming to build on our strengths and expand our horizons.

What advice would you give to young people about acting on their dreams and pursuing something alongside their education?Pursuing dreams is never a bad thing, but a person needs to realise that doing meaningful work takes a lot of time and effort - it means sacrificing a lot which you don’t realise in the beginning of your ventures. Respecting your commitments, essentially means putting the needs of others before you - unless you are prepared to do that you are not ready for the real world.

However, the effort that gets invested is realised tenfold at the end of successful campaigns. There is no greater feeling than leading development projects, giving creative inputs, sit back with your CEO to analyse the numbers and see the efforts of your hard work coming together. With the right team and mentality, I believe anything can be accomplished.

What is the most useful digital tool you have ever come across?When working in a resource constrained startup environment, there is perhaps nothing as precious as a co-founder’s time. While there are some great tools out there which help us manage our time better, I believe a fundamental problem with them is that we end up working for the software, and not the other way around. There are very few digital tools which integrate with my existing workflows.

However, an exception to the above would have to be the Hubspot CRM. It helps us manage sales and is an extremely useful tool for revenue forecasting and following up with clients. The company CTO, Dharmesh Shah, is a personal idol and I admire him for product development philosophies.

Photos: Bigstock

Hot Topic T-JUNCTION 23D

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THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

You work with a talented young group of individuals in the office. What’s your management philosophy?I always believed in hiring the right person for the right place. I do not expect to be working with people who are not self driven and motivated. I believe in sharing ideas with talented people and expect them to make it better. That is how we improve ideas, their execution and stimulate innovation.

Our industry demands that we keep learning, and so training people to be able to absorb and retain such vast amount of information is always a challenge. Which is why I personally take charge of making education and self improvement a vital part of WebAble culture.

What do you think the future holds for you and WebAble? Is there anything you’d like to say on this parting note? Broadly speaking, the future of WebAble involves solving bigger problems with simpler technology. That will be the focal point of our rebranding process. I feel that our brand is more than a guideline, it is actually a mindset that tells us how we should approach marketing and innovation in this space.

Everyone is more or less aware of the ingredients that make good campaigns, but my vision is to exponentially amplify the power of marketing by empowering interaction, analysis and design with the help of cutting edge web technology. l

The commuting cost challenge Travel expenses soar but � exible working provides a solution

news

The cost of travelling to work has almost doubled over the past five years, with new research by global workplace provider Regus revealing that workers worldwide now spend an average of 5% of their net take-home income on their annual commute. The study surveyed more than 44,000 senior business people across more than 100 countries.

Global workers spent an average of 3% of their annual take-home pay on their commute into work back in 2010, but the situation has now significantly worsened. Costs have risen even higher than the 5% average for workers in some parts of the world. In South Africa, Brazil, France, India and Mexico, for example, country averages have reached 6%.

For an unlucky but small percentage of workers globally, the annual commute eats up far more of their income with 14% of workers admitting they spend 10% or more of their earnings on travel. Another fifth spends over the average reporting that 5-10% of salary goes on

commuting. Businesses that want to retain and attract top talent cannot fail to address the issue of the costly commute.

In 2010 the average commuter spent 3% of take-home salary on travel, this has now risen to 5%. In France, Mexico, South Africa and India commuters spend an average of 6% of annual income on travel and more than a third (34%) of respondents spend over the average 5%.

Harsh Lambah, country manager of Regus, Bangladesh commented, “With living costs rising, every penny counts for the world’s workers, yet travel expenses are accounting for a larger and larger slice of their yearly outgoings, in some cases making the commute into work prohibitively expensive and deterring prospective talent.”

“Flexible working can provide a solution for maxed out employees. Businesses that want to provide workers with a real perk and retain valuable sta� need to urgently address reducing the cost of commuting by o� ering them the choice to work closer to home at least some of the time.”

Regus is the global workplace provider. Its network of more than 2,300 business centres in 104 countries provides convenient, high-quality, fully serviced spaces for people to work, whether for a few minutes or a few years. Companies like Google, Toshiba and GlaxoSmithKline choose Regus so that they can work flexibly and make their businesses more successful.

The key to flexible working is convenience and so Regus is opening wherever its 2.1 million members want support - city centres, suburban districts,

shopping centres and retail outlets, railway stations, motorway service stations and even community centres.

Founded in Brussels, Belgium, in 1989, Regus is based in Luxembourg and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Their business centres in Dhaka are located at Crystal Palace, 3rd Floor, House SE (D) 22, Road 140, Gulshan South Avenue, Gulshan-1 and UTC Building, 19th Floor, Kawran bazar, Dhaka, 1215.

For more information, please visit: www.regus.com.bd or contact: ashish.agarwal@regus.com l

Get in touch with Shadab:Twitter: @shadableLinkedIn: http://bit.ly/ShadabLIEmail: shadab@webable.com.bdj

Read Shadab’s blogs on Bable: Digital Marketing Blog by WebAble

NewsT-JUNCTION24 DT

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

n Syeda Samira Sadeque

The Dhaka-based Social Business Youth Alliance (SBYA) organised the Social Business Youth Summit 2015 on Monday, under the guidance of the Yunus Centre.

The summit was organised to create a platform of social business where the youth can interact, meet and learn from professionals in the field. There were students from all across Bangladesh as well as different countries including Australia, Japan, Morocco, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Around 600 youths participated in the event which held various sessions of speeches, interactive activities and workshops on various topics including

ideologies and theory, social media, the micro and macro levels of social business, promoting causes and leadership in the field of social business.

Abir Ferdous Mukhar, a film studies student who participated in the event, says he came here to learn how to connect social business to filmmaking.

“Since I am a film student, I can’t go into a career of banking or finance,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

“Thus I wanted to learn how to use my film education in the field of social business and in what capacity I can do that,” he said, adding that he is interested in working with the hijra (transgender) community to create a social business model that would give the community a source of earning.

The event ended with a note from Dr Muhammad Yunus, who delivered an encouraging speech for the youth.

Making a stellar comparison to science fiction, Dr Yunus spoke of creating a “social fiction.”

“Whatever we create in science fiction, technology and science follow that direction, they try to make it happen,” he said.

“That’s the direction of imagination. You imagine things, and they start happening,” he continued. “If you can make science fiction a reality just by imagining it, why don’t you write social fiction? And we can make it happen. We can build a society we imagined.”

Shazeeb M Khairul Islam, founder of SBYA, Lamiya Morshed, executive

director of the Yunus Centre, and Dr David Hodges, Professor at RMIT University among others spoke at the event.

The event was held at Krishibid Institute of Bangladesh. East Delta University, AFW, Multimode, Olympic, Lava, Net Park, Bongo are sponsors of the event. UIUBC, UNESCO Club of BRAC University, Business Club of Jagannath University, NSU HRM Club, IUTPS, IABC of BRAC University, BYLC Graduate Network, IBA-JUDC and AUW Model United Nations are club partners for the event. Thereport24.com and Prito Reza Production were audiovisual partners, while the Dhaka Tribune and Radio Shadhin 24FM were the media partners.l

Social Business Youth Summit 2015 held at KIB

One of the pioneers in real estate and housing sector business in Bangladesh, Building Technology and Ideas Ltd (Bti) has recently launched “Bti Standard Collection” — a new apartment category introduced by Bti. By initiating this project,

Bti has added a brand new chapter to its rich tradition. On that occasion, a press conference was held on May 30 at Bti Celebration Point, Gulshan. Managing director of Bti, Engineer F R Khan, AGM-Standard Collection Mahbubur Rahman,

ED-Construction Md Shorifur Rahman, ED-Customer Services Md Shamsul Amin, ED-Audit Md Ziaur Rahman and COO-Operations Md Ahsanul Haque were present at the conference.

For over 30 years now, Bti has built

BTI launches newly initiated apartment category “BTI Standard Collection”

quality homes for over 4000 families. The name has become synonymous with quality and joyful home ownership. The Standard Collection comes with the same promise to live up to the benchmark Bti has created so far. Apartments in the Standard Collection have all the essential elements that one may require and expect from the ideal modern home. Yet, they are priced extremely generously, and thus Bti have proudly established the Standard Collection’s tagline as “Affordable Luxury.”

Bti has built homes in some of the most elite and prestigious locations in Dhaka and Chittagong, and they have now turned their focus to areas which show great potential for the future. These are areas which are sure to expand and flourish as the years go by, and they are delighted to pioneer and help usher this growth. It is with this thought that Bti has moved to Comilla, with two of their Standard Collection projects currently under construction there. Also in the immediate future is “Chayabithi,” an expansive and secured community on nearly 50 kathas of land and over 100 apartments located in Uttarkhan. There are many more on the way, each location carefully selected to make an immediate positive impact in that particular area and on its locals. l

25D

TTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

AJMAL DROPPED FOR SRI LANKA TESTS

26 2927

Ravi Shastri was on Tuesday named India’s interim coach for next

week’s tour of Bangladesh after o� cials failed to appoint a full-time

successor to Duncan Fletcher

INTERIM

SportLATE GOALS A HEADACHE FOR BANGLADESH

AFUSI, NORDE SET FOR SK JAMAL RE-UNION

(Top-bottom) Liton Kumar Das, Jubair Hossain and Sha� ul Islam stretch their backs during training at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Rubel in, Shahadat out for India TestAnamul’s wait prolongs, Faruk hints Jubair’s inclusion in the playing XI n Minhaz Uddin Khan

Fast bowler Rubel Hossain re-turned to the Tigers Test fold as there were no surprises in the 14-member Bangladesh squad announced yesterday for the one-o� Test match

against India, starting June 10. Having regained full � tness, Rubel’s inclu-

sion was largely anticipated after Shahadat Hossain fell prey to injury during their last Test outing against Pakistan last month. How-ever, top-order batsman and wicket-keeper Anamul Haque’s return has been delayed as the selectors showed faith with uncapped Liton Kumar Das as the second choice behind the wickets after Mush� qur Rahim.

When queried of Liton’s chances of don-ning the gloves, Faruk said, “Liton was a member in the last squad too and he got the national call when Mush� q was � t. His ability got him the national call. We still have around seven days before the Test match. I hope Mush� q will recover within this time.

“It is always comfortable for the selectors

to have a back-up wicket-keeper in the squad. Before Liton, this role was performed by An-amul. We always have an extra wicketkeep-er-batsman in the team and this is why we have selected Liton,” Faruk explained during the press conference in Mirpur.

Shuvagata Hom’s place in the squad was questioned alongside the talented leg-spin-ner Jubair Hossain who is yet to be utilised properly despite being a part of the Test team. However, Faruk did hint that Jubair will a part of the playing XI.

“This does not allow any pressure come towards us (the national selectors). I think we have taken all the necessary facts into con-sideration and picked the best possible team for the Test against India. This is a process through which we have to put up a team,” said Faruk.

“The squad is formed following meetings between the selectors, the coach and the cap-tain. The coach and the captain had demand-ed the inclusion of Jubair in the side and they have told me of having some plans involving him. This is why we have included Jubair.”

“He (Shuvagata) has been included as an

o� -spinner,” said Faruk. “Earlier, Sohag Gazi was in this place. But, the illegal bowling ac-tion saw him lose the spot. He (Gazi) correct-ed his action and is performing well in the domestic arena at the moment but we want to give him more time so that he can perfect his new bowling action. At the moment Hom is our second best option as an o� -spinner. He took nine wickets in the phase game of the BCL (Bangladesh Cricket League).”

Bangladesh’s 17-day bilateral home series against India will begin with the only Test at Fatullah on June 10 followed by the three-match ODI series.l

SQUADMush� qur Rahim (captain), Tamim Iqbal (vice-captain), Imrul Kayes, Liton Kumar, Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib al Hasan, Shuvagata Hom, Taijul Islam, Jubair Hossain, Rubel Hos-sain, Abul Hasan, Mohammad Shahid

The coach and the captain had demanded the inclusion of Jubair in the side and they have told me of having some plans involving him. This is why we have included Jubair

Sport26DT

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

‘I am willing to contribute for my team’n Mazhar Uddin

The explosive wicketkeeper-batsman Liton Kumar Das is prepared to bat at any posi-tion, given he gets a place in the playing XI in the Test match against India. His journey with the national side began last month when he was named in the Test squad that played Pakistan, but although he only warmed the bench, this time his chances of replacing his skipper behind the wicket looks bright.

Regular wicket-keeper Mush� qur Rahim, su� ering from a � nger injury, is most likely to skip his duty with the gloves which opens the door for Liton.

“I am looking forward to giving my best performance if I get the opportunity to play the Test match against India. Though Mush� q bhai’s injury is not a good news for us but at the same time he will play a big part with the bat which will surely boost our con� dence,” said Liton to Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The selectors also showed faith on the 20-year old and it was only a wise decision to

pick Liton ahead of Anamul Haque, who just regained � tness after sustaining a shoulder injury during Bangladesh’s World Cup cam-paign in Australia-New Zealand.

With a staggering average of 85.33, � ve centuries and three � fties the right-handed opening batsman scored 1024 runs in seven matches for Rangpur division to � nish on top of the National Cricket League’s run-scorers’ list. Playing for Abahani, Liton was the sec-ond highest run-getter in the Dhaka Premier League with 686 runs in 16 matches.

However, the national team is a place which often saw many talented players come and go without justifying their talent. If Liton plays, he will be taken out of his comfort zone and probably bat down the order at No 6 or 7.

“I am used to open the innings in all for-mats of the game but I am ready to bat at any position if the team combination requires me to. I am willing to contribute for my team. And as a batsman it’s my duty to bat at any position, though I am more comfortable opening the innings,” he said.l

Late goals a headache for Bangladesh footballn Shishir Hoque

Conceding goals in the dying stages of the game continued to haunt Bangladesh as the men in red and green were held to yet another 1-1 draw against Afghanistan in a Fifa interna-tional football friendly at Bangabandhu Na-tional Stadium last Tuesday.

And with the 2018 Fifa World Cup second round quali� ers just a week away, Bangla-desh’s Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif expressed his anger and dismay over a prob-lem that has been bothering them for quite some time now.

Although shipping late goals is a common feature in the game of football, Bangladesh have been doing it regularly in the last two years.

In the 2013 Sa� Championship in Nepal, Bangladesh lost to Pakistan and drew against India despite being in the ascendency and dominating large parts of their games. Bang-ladesh continued to su� er at the hands of In-dia as the latter scored yet another late goal in a Fifa international friendly in Goa last year in March. Prior to the Afghanistan friendly, the most recent one came in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup earlier this year when Bangladesh undid all their good work in the � nal by con-ceding a late goal against Malaysia.

“We have to keep on telling them that they have to concentrate for 90 minutes and plus. How many times have we conceded goals in the dying seconds? I’m getting crazy of it,” said a disappointed De Kruif after the friendly.

Last Tuesday, Bangladesh grabbed an early lead through veteran forward Jahid Hasan Ameli in just the fourth minute of the friendly. At a rain-drenched BNS, the home side kept the visitors under wraps right until the 93rd minute when Afghan mid� elder Is-mat Shenwari thumped in the heart-rending equalising goal.

“We played very well until the 26th-27th minute of the game with a lot of power, creating chances and scored a good goal and then again, typical Bengali behaviour. I told my players many times before in the last two years that when you lead 1-0, what you automatically do is step back and go for defence instead of trying to look for the second goal,” said De Kruif before adding, “The problem is, always, in a

game like this, the players are getting fatigued because of the pitch. And, also, 48 hours of rest that means they did not get enough recovery time. The body gets tired and they lose concentration.”

The 45-year old tactician however, pointed out some positives from the two Fifa inter-national friendlies against Afghanistan and Singapore. “I was happy with the working attitude. They fought everywhere, not every-body in the same way, but most of them were � ghting very hard. Positive and negative things are there but we have [seven] days to come up with a solution and see what we can do against Kyrgyzstan,” said De Kruif, allud-ing to Bangladesh’s opening home quali� er at the big bowl on June 11.l

The joy of the Afghanistan footballers knew no bounds following their equaliser against Bangladesh in the Fifa international friendly at BNS last Tuesday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

CL Supporters’ Cup kicks o� tomorrown Tribune Desk

In a bid to promote the rejuvenation of foot-ball in Bangladesh, 360 Degree, buoyed with youthful vigor, planned the Champions League Supporters’ Cup 2015 that will kick-o� at the Army Museum Field tomorrow.

In the past several years, the youth of the country showed great enthusiasm in follow-ing European football and also built fan club/supporters’ club of various clubs who were also o� cially recognised.

The three-day long 11-a-side football tour-nament will comprise 10 such supporters’ clubs who will be split across two groups in the initial phase. Group A consists of the sup-porters’ clubs of Barcelona, Borussia Dort-mund, Manchester City, Inter Milan and Ju-ventus while Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, AC Milan and Atletico Madrid will compete in Group B. Following the UEFA Champions League format, the knockout phase will be played on June 13 in accordance with the home and away basis. l

1-1

Sport 27D

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THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

Help footballer TanvirFormer national footballers urged the well-o� s of the society and the football fraternity to help former national footballer Tanvir who is � ghting for life at the Square Hos-pital after a fatal accident. Tanvir, a brilliant dribbler and the man of the tournament of Nitol Tata National Football in 2003, played for the national team, Sheikh Russel KC, Muktijoddha SKC and few other clubs. He encountered the accident while he was traveling to Dhaka from Natore on May 19. Deputy Minister for Sports Arif Khan Joy, former na-tional coach Sha� qul Islam Manik, former national captain Aminul Haque, former national stars Alfaz Ahmed, Golam Gaus, Zakir Hossain, Motiur Munna, Hasan al Mamun and others were present in the press conference organised by the Players Welfare Association at the Bangabandhu Nation-al Stadium yesterday. Donations are encouraged to be paid at account number 2438101092757 at Pubali Bank, Naya Paltan branch.

–Raihan Mahmood

Berbatov, Stekelenburg leave MonacoLigue 1 club Monaco announced on Monday that Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov and Dutch goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg will be leaving the club. Berbatov, one of his country’s most proli� c goalscorers and a former star with Manchester United and Tottenham, is at the end of his contract after scoring 18 goals in 53 matches for this season’s Champions League quarter-� nalists.

–AFP

Hamburg avoid relegationHamburg avoided a � rst relegation from Germany’s top � ight with a dramatic 2-1 extra-time win at Karlsruhe in Monday’s relegation play-o� , second-leg, to seal a 3-2 aggre-gate win. Replacement Nicolai Mueller scored Hamburg’s winner in the 115th minute, but Germany goalkeeper Rene Adler was Hamburg’s hero by saving a penalty by Karlsru-he’s Rouwen Hennings in the 123rd minute.

–AFP

I’m staying at Chelsea, says CostaStriker Diego Costa dismissed media reports suggesting he was unhappy at Chelsea after helping the English champi-ons to a 1-0 victory in a tour match against Sydney FC on Tuesday. “I have no reason to leave this place. I love it, the fans love me and I want to stay,” the Spanish international told Chelsea’s in-house TV channel.

–Reuters

Pakistan pick Abbas for ICC presidencyPakistan on Tuesday nominated former captain Zaheer Ab-bas to become president of the International Cricket Council after the game’s world governing body said it was seeking distinguished ex-cricketers.

–AFP

QUICK BYTES

Afusi, Norde set for Sk Jamal re-unionn Tribune Report

Bangladesh Premier League champions Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club are all set to bolster their squad by bringing in Haitian international sensation Sony Norde, who is likely to join the club by this Tuesday. Nige-rian coach Joseph Afusi is also expected take charge of the top-� ight holders, replacing the outgoing Maruful Haque. Sheikh Jamal re-cently sacked Maruf following the end of � rst phase of the top-� ight.

Both Norde and Afusi served Sheikh Jamal in the 2013-14 season before the former left the club to join Kolkata giants

Mohun Bagan. “We contacted Sony Norde during the

King’s Cup (late 2014) where he showed his

willingness to join Sheikh Jamal,” said club manager Anwarul Karim Helal yesterday.

“The date is not � xed yet but he (Norde)

will be coming on June 8 or 9. Afusi will also come at the same time. We are bringing back Norde to strengthen the squad because we have a lot of international matches abroad like the AFC President’s Cup in August, the King’s Cup and a friendly match away to a Korean club in January next year,” added Helal.

Meanwhile, Bosnian striker Damir Ibric is close to joining former treble winners Sheikh Russel. The 31-year old, who played for Bosnian Premier League club FK Mladost Velika Obarskathe and also represented the Bosnian Under-21s, is likely to land in Dhaka tomorrow.l

Sport28DT

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

Blatter resignation ends crazy week in footballn AFP, Zurich

Police calmly entered a Zurich hotel last Wednesday to arrest seven FIFA barons and spark a raucous week in football’s history that ended with football leader Sepp Blatter se-renely announcing he will quit.

“Unbelievable,” was the reaction of one FIFA executive member who requested ano-nymity. Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mut-ko, also an executive member, said the deci-sion was a “complete surprise”.

The 6:00 am raid, by police acting on a re-quest by US authorities, highlighted divisions that have marked Blatter’s 17 years in charge of the world’s most popular sport.

At the same time, Swiss police were at FIFA headquarters seizing documents for their in-quiry into the controversial awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar.

It added fuel to the � re for his opponents, who increased their calls for Blatter to stand down for failing to control what US authori-

ties called “rampant” corruption.Blatter and his supporters questioned the

timing of the hotel raid as a possible bid to in� uence his re-election. He said there was a European “hate” campaign.

The Swiss o� cial supported his suspi-cions by saying “curiously” there were three US journalists waiting in the hotel as the two FIFA vice presidents and other o� cials were led away. Blatter and his lieutenants battened down the hatches in the hours after the ar-rest, concentrating on mustering support for the FIFA election in two days time.

A showdown followed a day later at his � rst meeting with the heads of regional con-federations -- minus Je� rey Webb, president of the North and Central American group CONCACAF, who was detained.

UEFA president Michel Platini, a former Blatter ally, told the FIFA leader he had to go because “enough is enough”. Platini said he was “disgusted” and “sickened” by the tur-moil engul� ng FIFA.l

Zico considers FIFA runn AFP, Rio de Janeiro

Brazilian football great Zico is considering standing for the FIFA presidency after the resignation of Sepp Blatter.

The 62-year-old who appeared in three World Cup � nals for Brazil but never won it announced his intention on his Facebook page late Tuesday.

“Why not?” he said. “My life has always been in football. It’s a passion that I have al-ways treated seriously and with respect in Brazil and other countries.”

“I think football comes before politics,” he added. “I don’t have support yet, but if it’s open, I can become a candidate. It’s still an idea. Who knows?”l

POSSIBLE CONTENDERS FOR FIFA PRESIDENCY

Michel Platini, France, 59The current UEFA president was once close to Blatter but they gradually drifted apart. Platini is considered one of the greatest footballers ever, playing 72 times for France

and leading them to victory in the 1984 Euro-pean championships.Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, Jordan, 39

Blatter said the 73 votes Prince Ali collected in the � rst round of voting proved to Blatter that he no longer had the backing of the world. Prince Ali may take another

shot at the position but he is unlikely to run if his mentor Platini does.Jerome Champagne, France, 56

The former French diplomat worked at FIFA for 11 years and rose to the position of deputy secretary general before leaving in 2010. He was the � rst to declare his

candidacy for the 2015 race but had to pull out eventually.Wolfgang Niersbach, Germany, 64

Now the president of the German Football Associa-tion, he was elected to the FIFA executive committee this year and would bring a modern reformist approach

to FIFA while fostering global cooperation.Domenico Scala, Italy/Switzerland, 50

If anyone from within FIFA was to stand a chance of a shot at the top job, it could be the authoritative Swiss-Italian businessman, who has been independent

chairman of FIFA’s Audit and Compliance Committee since May 2012.Jerome Valcke, France, 54

If Valcke thought he might follow Blatter into the presidential o� ce in the way that Blatter followed Joao Havelange, he probably should think again.

He is seen as too close to Blatter to be a credi-ble alternative.

REACTION ON BLATTER RESIGNATION

“It was a di� cult decision, a brave decision, and the right decision.”

-- UEFA president Michel Platini, who called on members of his federation to vote against

Blatter in last Friday’s presidential vote. “We highly respect this decision of President Blatter to step down and to initiate the nec-essary reforms - and to make way for a new leadership of FIFA to drive these changes.”

-- International Olympic Committee presi-dent Thomas Bach,

“Why didn’t he step down last week? Clearly there’s a smoking gun of some sort. He’s not been honourable in years. Now he’s gone - let’s celebrate.”-- English Football Association (FA) president

Greg Dyke, one of Blatter’s sternest critics. “Platini remains my favoured candidate. I always said that.”-- French Federation president Noel Le Graet,

who ignored Platini’s advice and voted for Blatter in the FIFA election.

“For me his (Blatter) resignation came as a complete surprise.”-- Russian Sports Minister and FIFA executive

committee member Vitaly Mutko. “It’s a tragedy why he didn’t spare us all, and himself, by doing this sooner.”

-- German Football Association president Wolfsgang Niersbach, a FIFA executive

committee member. “Prince Ali is ready to take over as FIFA head at any moment, should they ask him.”

-- Sala Sabra vice-president of the Jordanian Football Federation, signalling that Prince Ali bin al Hussein will run in the next FIFA

election. “The best news for ages! Joseph Blatter step-ping down as FIFA president represents the beginning of a new era for world football.”

-- Brazilian football great and politician Romario.

“Change is � nally coming. I said on Friday that the day would come sooner or later. Here it is!”

-- Portuguese football legend Luis Figo, who withdrew from the presidential race to allow Prince Ali be the sole anti-Blatter candidate.

Benitez takes on greatest challenge at Real Madridn Reuters, Madrid

Rafa Benitez was appointed Real Madrid coach on Wednesday, the much-travelled 55-year-old taking on one of the most demanding jobs in club soccer in which he will be expected to deliver major trophies in short order.

Spaniard Benitez quit Serie A side Napoli last week and returns to his boyhood club to succeed Italian Carlo Ancelotti, sacked after Real failed to either defend their Champions League crown or win the domestic league or Cup.

A former Valencia, Liverpool, Inter Milan and Chelsea manager, Benitez began coach-ing in Real’s youth academy in 1986 after injury ended his hopes of becoming a profes-sional player.

He is the 10th coach to be appointed by president Florentino Perez during the con-struction magnate’s two six-year stints at the helm of the world’s richest club.

“It’s an emotional day returning here to my home,” Benitez said. “I have a good technical team behind me and I hope things go well, that we win titles and the team plays well.”l

Sport 29D

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Ten Cricket8:00PM Australia Tour of West Indies 1st Test Day 2 Star Sports 1Men’s FIH Hockey World League 11:00PM, 1:00AM New Zealand v Japan, Netherlands v Egypt Star Sports 211:30PM Natwest T20 Blast 2015Hampshire v Middlesex

DAY’S WATCH

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

Jonty Rhodes (L) speaks with Sri Lankan ‘A’ team � elding coach Upul Chandana (C) during a � elding coaching session yesterday AFP

McCullum ecstatic as New Zealand bounce backn AFP, Leeds

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum praised his side’s resil-ience after they bounced back from a heavy defeat to square their Test series with England.

The Black Caps completed an emphatic 199-run win in the sec-ond Test at Headingley on Tuesday to end the two-match series level at 1-1 just over a week after their 124-run defeat in the � rst Test at Lord’s.

England, set what would have been a new fourth innings Test vic-tory total of 455, resumed Tuesday on 44 without loss but collapsed to 62 for four before lunch and were eventually bowled out for 255.

Part-time o� -spinner Kane Williamson, primarily a batsman and once barred from bowling in international cricket because of a suspect action, was one of New Zealand’s bowling heroes with three for 15 in seven overs.

“We bounced back after Lord’s,” said McCullum at the pres-entation ceremony.

“Obviously with a two-Test series we had to force the pace and I thought the guys bought into that and we played a really enter-taining brand of cricket,” added McCullum after leading New Zea-land to just their ninth win in 101 Tests against England.l

Ajmal dropped for SL Testsn Reuters

Pakistan have dropped o� -spinner Saeed Ajmal from their squad for the three-test series against Sri Lanka this month and have re-called opening batsmen Ahmed Shehzad and Shan Masood.

The 37-year-old Ajmal, once Pakistan’s most potent wick-et-taker, has struggled since returning to international cricket from a ban for an illegal bowling action.Squad: Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali, Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Younis Khan, Asad Sha� q, Haris Sohail, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah, Zul� qar Babar, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Imran Khan, Ehsan Adil l

DOWNTIME30DT

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

DILBERT

How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no number repeating.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CODE-CRACKER

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 1 represents F so � ll F every time the � gure 1 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

ACROSS1 Procession (6)6 Poor actor (3)9 Angry (5)10 Silent (4)11 Even (5)12 Greek letter (3)13 Slacken (6)15 Incline (4)18 Extinct (4)21 Glittering particles (6)24 Weight (3)25 Girl’s name (5)28 Consumer (4)29 Person under age (5)30 Fresh (3)31 Hate intensely (6)

DOWN1 Airman (5)2 Land measure (3)3 Entangle (5)4 Consumed (3)5 Small valley (4)6 Colours (4)7 Wait on (6)8 Niggardly (4)14 Not even (3)16 Set as a burden (6)17 Hill (3)19 Sheeplike (5)20 Not concealed (5)21 Stupefy (4)22 Afresh (4)23 Identical (4)26 Ignited (3)27 Long-leaved lettuce (3)

SUDOKU

SHOWTIME 31D

TTHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

WHAT TO WATCH

The ConjuringHBO 9:30pm Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ron Livingston

2 Fast 2 FuriousStar Movies 5:05pmBrian O’Conner and childhood friend Roman Pearce are re-united by the FBI to bring down a Miami drug exporter in exchange for clear records.Cast: Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, Eva Mendes

Life of PiMovies Now 1:15pm A young man who survives a disaster at sea is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor: a fearsome Bengal tiger. Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Ayush Tandon

CELEBS ON SOCIAL

n Showtime Desk

The stage play Baramkhana depicts the dramatic life of Lalon Sain, the Baul whose life is like a drama. In the play Lalon has been highlighted as a “symbol.” It becomes a matter of sorrow when everything in this region becomes a subject of interest for personal use and Lalon Sain is not an exception in this regard. As the play progresses, he also becomes a victim of politics.Secularism is the basic foundation of Lalon’s philosophy. However, under the continuous inauspicious pressure of religion, politics and business, isn’t his philosophy deviating from the root of it all? Many questions like this have been raised in the play Baramkhana which was written by Pantho Shahriar and directed by Tropa Majumder. Based on Sunil Ganguly’s famous novel Moner Maanush, the play Baramkhana will be staged for the 32nd time on June 4, 2015 at National Theatre Stage of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Among other artists Ferdousi Majumder, Ramendu Majumder, Paresh Acharya, Rashedul Aowal Shawon, Tamanna Islam, Tropa Majumder, Sekanul Islam Shahi, Apon Ahsan etc are playing the key roles in the play.

Baramkhana has already been staged at Bratyajan Natyamela in Kolkata and garnered immense positive response. l

Caitlyn Jenner @Caitlyn_Jenner I’m so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self. Welcome to the world Caitlyn. Can’t wait for you to get to know her/me.

Harper’s Bazaar @harpersbazaarus Unintentional Style Icon: Miss Agatha Hannigan http://bit.ly/1Jp5gnX

Dil Dhadakne Do @DDDTheFilm What an amazing morning it is when you wake up and realise that it’s just #2DaysToDDD. RT if you agree.

Baramkhana staged

Pritilata’s life gets a theatrical treatment

n Showtime Desk

A recently produced stage drama features the life of the revolutionary nationalist, Pritilata Waddedar. The show premiered last sunday at the Music and Dance Centre of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.Aptly titled Birkanya Pritilata, a production of Dhaka-based troupe Joyjatra Opera, the production has been

portrayed on stage in the jatra style, a popular folk-theatre form of Bangla theatre.

The play chronicles the last years of Pritilata’s tumultuous life, when she joined Surya Sen’s revolutionary group in Chittagong, resisting the lure of building a career following an excellent academic track record. Around 20 performers from the troupe have collaborated to depict the

life of Pritilata Waddedar with glimpses into the life of other revolutionaries of her time, including Surya Sen, Nirmal Sen and Kalpana Dutt.

Written by Kolkata-based writer, Sadhan Mukherjee, and jointly directed by SM Shafi and Morshed Faruq, the play’s premiere show has marked the official launch of a magazine named after the revolutionary character. l

BACK PAGE32DT

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015

TAX ON CAPITAL GAINS SET TO GO PAGE 15

BARAMKHANA HIGHLIGHTS LALON AS A SYMBOL PAGE 25

RUBEL IN, SHAHADAT OUT FOR INDIA TEST PAGE 25

Smuggling suspect Thai army man surrendersn AFP

A high-ranking Thai army o� cer wanted on human tra� cking charges handed himself to police yesterday, the � rst military � gure in the junta-ruled kingdom to be arrested over the grim trade.

Lt Gen Manas Kongpan voluntarily attended police headquarters in Bang-kok yesterday morning.

His detention raises awkward ques-tions for junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha, who has repeatedly justi� ed his

coup last year as a much-needed anti-dote to civilian government era graft.

Manas arrived at the police head-quarters dressed in his military uni-form and made no statement to a waiting press pack. But the country’s top police o� cer said the 58-year-old denied the charges against him.

Thai police have yet to detail what role Manas is alleged to have played in the once thriving people smuggling trade. Rights groups have long accused Thai o� cials of turning a blind eye to -- or even complicity in – the illegal

trade.Thai police have issued 84 arrest

warrants with 51 suspects detained so far, including some local o� cials.

According to the Royal Thai Army website, Manas was the commander of Chumphon in 2013, before taking a senior position in Songkhla. He was moved this year to the army headquarters to act as an adviser. The army has suspended him and launched an internal probe since the arrest warrant was issued against him on Sunday. l

Malaysian team enters Thailand to � nd more mass gravesn Tribune Report

Malaysian police and forensic experts have entered Thailand to � nd out at least 91 more human smuggling graves believed to be located at a reserve forest near the shared border.

The route via Ban Talok in Thailand will only take about an hour because the path is not as steep as the Wang Kelian route, where another transit camp had been discovered earlier, reports Malaysian news network Astro Awani.

Six land rovers and pick-up trucks were seen leaving the Pa-dang Besar police station at about 9am. The vehicles are believed to be part of the logistics team which will be bringing the equip-ments to dig the graves.

Malaysian police had earlier said that Thai authorities have granted them � ve days to enter the camp and bring out the bodies through Thailand’s Banh.

Thailand police in early May had found secret human-traf-� cking camps on their side of the border and dozens of shallow graves. They launched a crackdown on human-smuggling follow-ing the discovery of the mass graves.

Meanwhile, 35 human skeletons found in the Bukit Burma jungle in Wang Kelian and believed to be victims of the human tra� cking syndicates have been taken to a hospital for pathological processes.

To date, 139 graves at 28 temporary camps of the human traf-� cking syndicates were found between Kampung Wai in Kuala Perlis and Tangga 100 at Felcra Lubuk Sireh in Padang Besar. l

Myanmar lands 700 boatpeople in Rakhinen AFP

More than 700 migrants found adrift on a � shing boat six days ago disembarked in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine yesterday as the US warned it was monitoring their fate “very closely.”

Before being intercepted, they were heading towards Malaysia, which along with Indonesia and Thailand has seen 3,500 hungry people arrive in recent weeks in a migrant crisis that erupted after a crackdown on people-smuggling.

Myanmar said the 727 passengers found aboard the vessel last Friday were “Bengalis” – the term it uses to describe its Rohingya – and initially threatened to send them across the border before the navy escorted them towards Rakhine.

Authorities planned to move them to the nearby village of Taungpyo Letwe close to the Bangladesh border, where an earlier group of 200 migrants rescued o� Myanmar are being held while their nationalities are veri� ed.

Another unnamed o� cial in the Rakhine state capital Sittwe said that group of 200 migrants would be sent to Bangladesh in coming days. “Bangladesh agreed today to accept them,” the of-� cial said.

But a spokesman for Bangladesh’s border guards told AFP that My-anmar o� cials had yet to de� nitively show they were Bangladeshis.

Yesterday, US Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard, who visited camps housing Rohingya refugees in western Indonesia in recent days, said Myanmar was “responsible for what happens to people” on the boat which came ashore. l

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