The New Nation - Internet Edition

CA’s role important in financial transparency, says President

UNB, Dhaka

President Professor Dr Iajuddin Ahmed Wednesday said the chartered accountants of the country could play an important role in bringing about financial transparency and accountability in both private and public sectors.

"The financial statements that are prepared by the chartered accountants make immense contributions to preparing budgetary documents and help in decision making process," he said, addressing the 18th convocation of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) at Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Centre.

The President said chartered accountants with their professional skill and expertise could render services to the nation in strengthening the discipline in financial matters.

Appreciating the efforts of chartered accountants, he said: "I'm happy to know that the ICAB is dedicated to imparting quality and time-befitting education to the CA students with a view to creating a responsible accountancy profession in Bangladesh."

He added that it is a matter of satisfaction that the ICAB has been playing a pivotal role in grooming professional accountants in the country since its inception in 1973.

Congratulating the new chartered accountants, President Iajuddin urged them to keep up the confidence and trust the people has "bestowed upon you and put your expertise in your professional field keeping the national interest above all other considerations."

Of the total 53 students, who were awarded certificates as qualified chartered accountants, nine received their certificates from the President for their extraordinary results.

ICAB president Humayun Kabir gave the welcome speech while Vice Chancellor of North South University Prof Hafiz GA Siddiqi was the convocation speaker.

Delwar, Khoka discuss city nominations

Staff Reporter

BNP Secretary General Khandker Delwar Hossain and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka yesterday discussed the party's nominations for the metropolitan city's constituencies for contesting the upcoming parliamentary election on December 29.

"We still have a strong existence in the city," Khoka told the journalists after talking with Delwar at his NAM flat.

He said the total number of constituencies in Dhaka had been increased to 15 from eight.

"BNP would nominate strong candidates for those constituencies," he added.

"The chairperson will finalise the candidates for the constituencies considering the overall situation," he mentioned.

Party chief may now nominate Khoka for Dhaka-6, metropolitan leaders opined. BNP candidates won all the previous eight constituencies in 2001.

Earlier the incumbent mayor, who won a High Court stay Tuesday on the Election Commission's ban on mayors running for parliamentary election.

Jamaat finalises candidates list

Staff Reporter

The Parliamentary Board of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday at a meeting finalised candidate's lists intending to contest in the upcoming parliamentary elections on December 29.

Moulana Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ameer of Jamaat presided over the meeting at the party's central office at Magbazar in the city.

Mokbul Ahmed, Nayeb-e-Ameer, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, Secretary General, Moulana Delwar Hossain Syedee, Executive Council Member, Assistant Secretaries General Mohammad Kamarazzaman, Abdul Qader Mollah, ATM Azharul Islam, Prof Mojibur Rahman, Prof Mohammad Tasnim Alam, publicity secretary and Prof Mohammad Ijjat Ullah, member, Central Working Council of the party, among others, attended the meeting.

"We have finalised the candidate's names for contesting the polls after evaluating the names being sent from the grass roots level of our party," said a high up of Jamaat.

Country heading for severe power crisis

UNB, Dhaka

The country's power sector is heading for a severe crisis for failure to implement power projects in public and private sector.

The power shortage is now about 2,000MW. With fast increasing demand the situation is likely to be intolerable, affecting production in factories and field.

Officials said generation of about 6336MW electricity was planned to add to the national grid by 2010, of which half was to come by December 2009.

But the achievement so far is less than 10 percent. Experts in the sector blamed the Power Division's too much interest in setting up rental power plants which are highly inefficient, costly in operation and high gas consuming.

The power tariff of the rental plant is the highest, to the extent of Tk 15 per unit, as against normal power tariff of about Tk 2 per unit.

For rental power plant, PDB is to incur huge loss, estimated at Tk 42 crore per month. The PDB's overall loss is about Tk 1200 crore in purchasing electricity from costly and inefficient plant. This year, the loss may cross Tk 1500 crore.

Despite this huge loss, the Power Division has engaged its full efforts to implement the rental power plant projects. A few projects came into operation as per agreement while most others failed to come up.

A total of 600MW rental power plant projects were undertaken in two phases in last two years, of which 300MW signed agreements for a 15-year term and another 300MW for a 3-year term. Of them, barely 160MW (20 MW Bogra+160 MW 3-year plants) has come into generation.

Failing to install timely, sponsors of the rental power plants now moved to the court to avoid penalty, allegedly in connivance with certain officials of the Power Division.

Power Secretary at a recent seminar informed that the rental power projects were undertaken to meet emergency power demand. But he did not explain why the projects failed to come into operation.

Experts believe that inefficient and costly rental power projects are likely to render state-owned PDB bankrupt because of purchase of electricity at an exorbitant high rate.

Sources said among the projected power plants in the public sector, only 90MW Fenchuganj, 240MW Siddhirganj and 150MW Sikalbaha are under implementation.

No IPP project could make headway during the last two years. Power Division scrapped a number of deals in IPP and public sector projects allegedly on grounds of lame excuse.

Dr. Milon Day today

Staff Reporter

Today is martyred Dr Milon Day. Dr Samsul Alam Milon was shot dead by unknown assailants on the Dhaka University campus on November 27, 1990 during the anti- autocracy movement.

Commemorating the day, the leaders and workers of different political parties including Awami League and BNP recalled the sacrifice of Dr. Milon and placed wreaths on his memorial.

In a statement AL President and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said supreme sacifice of Dr Milon gave momentum to anti-autocracy movement and precipitated the fall of autocracy.

She called on the people to come forward to establish real democracy in the country for ensuring their constitutional rights and betterment of the country. In a statement BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia paid tribute to the memory of Dr Molon terming him as a memorable name in the history of the country's movement for democracy.

She said the sacrifice made by Milon turned the mass movement into a mass upsurge and expedited fall of the democratic rule.

She prayed for the eternal peace of the departed soul of Dr Milon.

4 Bangladeshis killed in UAE road accident

Staff Reporter

Four Bangladeshi expatriates were killed in a tragic road accident in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday night.

The deceased were identified as Purananda (28), son of Abinash Rudhra of Shakroshala under Patia thana in Chittagong, Biplob Paul (22), son of Gopal Paul of Unsattar Para under Rawjan thana in Chittagong, Moinuddin Patwari (45), son of Ali Hossain of Char Alakgendar under Ramgoti thana in Laxmipur and Akram of Sylhet.

The accident took place at Ajman Imarat Signal Inter Sector at 12.30am while they were returning to their living place from the airport. The car which was carrying them collided head-on with a land cruiser coming from the opposite direction. The ill-fated expatriates died on the spot, family sources said.

Biplob Paul came to UAE from Bangladesh the same day to join a garment factory at Ajman. His uncle Purananda along with two Bangladeshis came to the airport to receive Biplob.

Purananda and Moinuddin came to UAE seven months ago in search of their livelihood.

Bodies of the victims were sent to Ajman Khalifa Hospital for autopsy.

Arrangements are underway to bring their bodies to Bangladesh.

Tangail power plant opens today

Staff Reporter

A 22-megawatt power plant will come into operation today at Tangail.

Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser for Energy, Power and Mineral Resources will inaugurate the new power plant as chief guest while Power Division Secretary Dr M Fauzul Karim Khan will be present in the inaugural ceremony.

At present, the power generation varies from 2900 MW to 3335 MW against the demand of 5000 MW. Due to shortage of power production, residents at different parts of the country experience severe power outages.

The Doreen Power Generations and System Limited constructed the power plant.

Bangladesh to net windfall of business from EU, US

UNB, Dhaka

EC Ambassador Dr Stefan Frowein yesterday said Bangladesh would win confidence and business opportunities from the European Union, the United States and other markets and emerge as a middle-income country only if there be a switchover to genuine coalition of sustainable democracy, good governance, the rule of law and commercial dynamism.

"The successful holding of credible elections is only one indicator of health of democracy in a given country. However, it is a vital one," he said speaking on 'Election, Democracy and Development' at AmCham monthly luncheon meeting at Hotel Sheraton-at a time when the country is at a crossroads.

Frowein said he stresses "successful" and "credible" as the world is only too used to witnessing deeply flawed and rigged elections that are mere vehicles for rubberstamping the rule of despots. He noted the situation in Bangladesh is somewhat different-and complex one. On the one hand, the authorities have constructed an electoral system that includes voter list with photographs and constituencies which better reflect the distribution of votes.

On the other hand, the Ambassador said, political system has for many years endured a culture of confrontation where responsible cooperation in a parliament has appeared elusive, where boycotts of parliament and resort to hartals are the norm.

This impacts the social and business climate of the country, the western diplomat said from his experience earned through this pretty long stay in Bangladesh that gave him the opportunity of witnessing the past confrontation in the political arena and the 1/11 changeover as well as its stormy aftermath.

"We can draw one conclusion immediately: It is not only undemocratic states that struggle to maximize their development potential. Dysfunctional and unstable democracies lose out too by frightening off potential investors and undermining the cultivation of trade links that are essential for survival in a globalized world," he noted.

The European envoy, however, observed that the story of Bangladesh is recent years have not been all doom and gloom. The country has sustained a credible GDP growth rate, millions of new jobs have been created in RMG sector and new job opportunity is being created in emerging shipping sector.

Endeavours of the interim government in the past two years to foster a more congenial business environment through initiatives such as Better Business Forum, the Truth Commission, the Regulatory Reform Commission and reform of Chittagong Port must be recognized, he told his business audience.

Frowein said all the efforts of the caretaker authorities have been underpinned by one simple commitment that the country will return to democracy through parliament elections in December.

He said deployment of the EU election observers to monitor the polls is a reflection of the EU's commitment to a strong, stable and democratic Bangladesh.

The Ambassador said the European Commission would continue to furnish substantial funds for development of Bangladesh with at least 50 million euros annually.

He said Bangladesh would remain the foremost recipient of EC trade-related technical assistance in Asia with an average of 10 million euros per year to tackle the issues like diversification of export products and fulfillment of quality and labour standards.

Frowein said the institutional and good-governance reforms achieved by the interim administration is a task that now falls to an incoming elected government.

AmCham president Syed Ershad Ahmed presided over the luncheon meeting attended by diplomats and business leaders.

DU welcomes Winter

Staff Reporter

Welcoming the bounties of Winter, as well as ushering the new harvest festival, the Dhaka University Cultural Group presented a musical programme at the TSC auditorium yesterday.

The programme began was a chorus song beckoning people to winter. Sumaiya presented a Tagore song on Autumn.

The programme was organised by TSC in association with Dhaka University Alumni Association.

Mamun recalled the sweet memories of early childhood by singing a song on mother, while Mahfuz presented a modern Bengali song. After that a solo romantic song was presented which enthralled the audience. Zakaria sang a very popular song of Shah Abdul Karim "Gari Chole Na," while Debashish presented a song from a Bangla film from olden days.

Pretha and Mithun entertained the spectators with a duet dance in the programme.

Naima and Tuhin presented a duet Tagore's song, which urged the gods to make life livelier.

Operation to rescue abducted fishermen continue

UNB, Bagerhat

Coastguard troops continued their operation to rescue 70 fishermen kidnapped at sea by pirates for ransom off Mongla- Sarankhola coast Monday.

The Coastguard members of Mongla West Zone reinforced their operation yesterday morning in the adjoining coastal areas of Bagerhat, including the sprawling Sundarbans.

But the abducted fishermen could not be traced till the last report came in.

Fishermen returning from the Bay of Bengal said a gang of pirates, led by ringleader Zulfiqar, launched attack on 70 fishing trawlers on Monday night near Dublarchar and looted their nets and fishes.

The pirates also beat the fishermen, kidnapped 70 crews of the trawlers.

The gang demanded ransom of Tk 50,000 for release of each of the abducted fishermen, with threat to kill them all if the demand is not met in five days.

The abducted fishermen hailed from different districts, including Bagerhat, Cox's Bazaar, Pirojpur, Barguna, Barisal, Bhola and Patuakhali.

Meanwhile, the news of the abduction of the fishermen created panic among the fishing communities in the coastal region.

"The family members of the fishermen are passing their days in anxieties and were seen moving to beg mahajans for the ransom money.

TAC clemency for 219 individuals so far

Staff Reporter

Truth and Accountability Commission (TAC) has so far granted clemency to 219 individuals.

TAC Chairman Justice Habibur Rahman disclosed this yesterday while briefing journalists at his office in the city.

He said a total of 481 applications have so far been submitted to the TAC for clemency. Of them 365 applicants are government servants and 52 are their spouses.

Of the rest 29 businessmen, 33 professionals and 2 are politicians.

The TAC boss said 279 applications have been sent through the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC), 167 through the National Co-ordination Committee to Combat Serious Crime and Corruption (NCC), 13 through the Court and 22 individuals have voluntarily come to the TAC for clemency by confessing their ill gotten wealth.

The TAC has already distributed clemency certificates among 170 individuals. Hearings of 327 persons have been completed by the TAC till yesterday and hearings of 5 individuals are in progress.

Meanwhile, the TAC has deposited worth Tk 16.09 crore to the state exchequer by confessing ill gotten wealth of 184 persons. Tk 31.49 crore has been fined by the Commission till yesterday.

Replying to a question, Justice Habibur Rahman said after declaring the Supreme Court order they resumes their work as before. "There is no obstacle in carrying out the activities of the TAC legally, morally, ethically," he said.

He, however, said that they are working with one month's target since they are yet to get judgment from the Supreme Court.

The TAC boss mentioned that after one month everything would be done in accordance with the Supreme Court order.

Enforcement of laws to check violence against women urged

BSS, Dhaka

Speakers at a seminar here on Wednesday stressed the need for proper enforcement of laws to check violence against women.

They also suggested raising social awareness and strengthening activities of the law-enforcement agencies against the crime.

Family Planning Association of Bangladesh (FPAB) arranged the seminar on 'Prevention of Violence against Women and Role of Law- Enforcement Agencies and Legal Aid Workers in Protecting Rights of Reproductive Health'.

Justice Golam Rabbani attended the function as the chief guest with FPAB Vice-President Papri Basu in the chair.

The seminar was addressed by Professor Mahmuda Islam of Women and Gender Studies Department of Dhaka University, Honourary Secretary of FPAB Rokhsana Rahman Hasi, eminent writer Dr Maleka Begum, Professor Mizanur Rahman of Dhaka University, Assistant Editor of Jugantar Sohrab Hasan and Project Manager of Second Urban Primary Health Care Project of Dhaka City Corporation M Habibur Rahman.

Emphasizing family law in the country, Justice Golam Rabbani said it would ensure women's rights and check violence against them.

Presenting the keynote paper at the seminar, former adviser of the caretaker government Dhiraj Kumar Nath said raising voice against violence towards women is everyone's moral responsibility.

He said legal aid workers and law enforces could play a significant role in stopping violence against women and establishing the rights of their reproductive health.

Underscoring the need for political commitment towards women development, Prof Mahmuda Islam said priority would have to be given to women in taking decisions.

To bring the women in the mainstream of development, she said, there is a need for providing different facilities, including education and health for them.

Downward trend in DSE: Concern over post-poll capital market

UNB, Dhaka

Finance Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday said the recent share market volatility might be the fall-out of investors' concern over the post-election situation.

"The investors are uncertain what is going to happen after the (general) election," he told reporters at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), replying to a question on the sluggish trend of the stock market for nearly two months.

On Wednesday, shares on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) incurred heavy losses across the board for the third consecutive day.

The Finance Adviser was talking to the reporters after attending a meeting at the SEC that decided to introduce "book building" method in issuing primary shares by this year to attract more companies to get listed.

SEC chairman Faruq Ahmad Siddiqui chaired the meeting attended by the CEOs of the Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges and senior SEC officials.

The capital market regulator invited the Adviser to the meeting to apprise him of the reforms the SEC is going to introduce at the demand by the stock market stakeholders.

Meanwhile, the DSE General Index (DGEN) shed 58 points or 2.22 percent to close at 2,559 points on Wednesday while the All Shares Price Index (DSI) fell 48 points or 2.21 percent to close at 2,117 and the DSE-20 index of selective shares dropped 49 points or 2.21 percent to close at 2,174 points.

Of the total 239 issues traded on the day, only 26 registered gains, 205 incurred losses and eight remained unchanged.

The day's total turnover, however, increased to Tk 1.80 billion from Tk 1.70 billion on Tuesday while market capitalization increased to Tk 976 billion from Tk 969 billion.

Uttara Bank, Beximco Pharma, Titas Gas, Beximco, ACI Limited, National Bank, Lankabangla Finance, Square Pharma, AB Bank and Brac Bank were the day's turnover leaders in terms of value.

The day's volume leaders were AIMS 1st Mutual Fund, Beximco Pharma, Beximco Textiles, Beximco, GRAMEENS2, Golden Son, Titas Gas, Lankabangla Finance, Keya Detergent and Keya Cosmetics.

Top gainers of the day were Fine Foods, BD Luggage, Chittagong Vegetables, Style Craft, Modern Dyeing, Beach Hatchery, Bionic Foods, 2nd ICB, Meghna Condensed Milk and Rose Heaven Ball.

Top losers were Shinepukur Ceramics, Renwick, Beximco, Dhaka Fish, Northern Insurance, Eagle Star, Apex Spinning, Eastern Cables, BD Online and ACI Limited.

Over 2 lakh tons Aman procurement target fixed

Shamim Jahangir

The 3-month long Aman procurement drive was launched on November 25 with a target of 1.50 lakh tonnes of rice and 75,000 tonnes of paddy.

The Ministry of Food has taken steps to procure Aman rice at Tk 26 per kg and paddy at Tk 16 per kg to build adequate food stock.

The Food Ministry will procure rice from auto rice mills owners and paddy from farmers directly during its procurement drive, a senior official of the Food Ministry said.

He hoped that the target of the drive will be achieved within the schedule period as the prices of rice and paddy are stable in the market this year.

A total of 94,900 tonnes of rice and 26,500 tonnes of paddy will be procured from Rajshahi division, 29,800 tonnes of rice and 14,000 tonnes of paddy from Dhaka division, 18,200 tonnes of rice and 11,400 tonnes of paddy from Khulna division, 6,275 tonnes of rice and 10,400 tonnes of paddy from Chittagong, 7,50 tonnes of rice and 4,500 tonnes of paddy from Sylhet and 75 tonnes of rice and 8,200 tonnes of paddy from Barisal division, ministry sources said.

"A total of 11.67 lakh tonnes of boro rice have been procured by the government this year as against seven lakh tonnes last year," the sources added.

Depression over Bay

UNB, Dhaka

The depression over south west Bay and adjoining Sri Lanka coast moved northwestwards and intensified into a deep depression over the same area on Wednesday morning.

"It was centered at 6 am yesterday about 1930 kms west-southwest of Chittagong port, 1875 kms west-southwest of Cox's Bazar port and 1780 kms southwest of Mongla Port." said a Met Office special bulletin.

It is likely to intensify further and move in a northwesterly direction.

Maximum sustained wind speed within 48 kms of the depression centre is about 50 kph rising to 60 kph in gusts/squalls. Sea will remain moderate.

Maritime ports of Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and Mongla have been advised to hoist distant cautionary signal number one.