The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Chittagong

Chittagong Customs House (CCH) has fined pre-shipment inspection (PSI) agency Bureau Veritas Tk 12 crore on charges of abetting importers to evade duty.

An official said their investigation has found that the agency helped traders to evade import duty for 27,700 tonnes of sugar in November, 2005.

The CCH yesterday sent an official letter to the PSI agency to deposit the money to the government exchequer in 10 days.

Earlier, the CCH had sought opinion from the office of the Attorney General (AG) about possible action against the traders involved in such surreptitious import of sugar.

The customs sent a letter to the AG office for its opinion after the joint forces recently detected some cases of duty evasion worth around Tk 400 crore in FY 2004-05 on the import of sugar from Brazil.

The investigation by the joint forces suggested that the evasion was committed by a pre-shipment inspection (PSI) company, importers and customs officials.

IMF's to ease external shock

window to help economy

UNB, Dhaka

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is simplifying its procedure of 'External Shock' window to help countries that are under economic pressure because of external factors.

Bangladesh could be a potential gainer because of the IMF move since skyrocketing oil and food prices on the global market are severely hurting the economy.

The notion came as an IMF team met with Finance Adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday.

"The visiting IMF team informed me that they are now easing the procedure of its 'External Shock' window from where Bangladesh could get monetary help to mitigate deficit in balance of payment," the Adviser told reporters at a post meeting briefing.

He said the team, led by IMF Asia Pacific adviser Thomas Rumbaugh, informed him that the simplification tasks will be complete in a couple of months.

The Adviser said the IMF team in general supported the budget for fiscal year 2008-09.

"Like me they also believe that the projection of revenue generation in the current fiscal year is achievable," he said, adding that the IMF is not concerned about the budget deficit.

In reply to a query, the Adviser said the government would not take any monetary policy that will affect production.

Referring to the current trend of inflation he indicated that external factors are behind such a situation.

"When external factors create a situation like this, domestic measures can hardly make any big impact," he said.

When his attention was drawn to the budgetary measures that could help put the inflation rate below 9 percent, he said it is difficult for anybody to be accurate on such forecast.

The IMF team also wanted to know about what happened to the Rupali Bank after a Saudi Prince showed interest in the bank but finally backed out.

"I told them nobody came to me with similar offer," the Adviser said.