Economy Mega plan to boost tourism with exclusive zone . The government is moving ahead to have its first exclusive tourism park in Cox's Bazar to boost the tourism industry developing world-class luxury hotels and ensuring modern facilities like other countries, which bring sun-seekers to beaches. The project site is located with exclusive beach front and half-an-hour sea cruise to St. Martins, a coral island. He said a draft summary in this regard has been sent to the Prime Minister's Office seeking CCEA's (Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs) approval for appointing Chittagong Dry Dock Limited (CDDL) to construct an embankment for protecting the Exclusive Tourism Park. Some 884 acres of land, according to the BEZA officials, have already been acquired while the initial site assessment is also completed. They said the 'purest' air, lofty hill, sea and lagoon create perfect conditions for the development of all types of tourism entertainment at Sabrang in Teknaf upazila under Cox's Bazar district. Director of the Tour Operators' Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) Taufiq Rahman hailed the decision and said inbound tourism will certainly flourish in the country if the project is properly implemented. "If you want to encourage inbound tourism, foreigners must be given something exclusive. It exists in other parts of the world. There should be separate facilities for foreign and local tourists," Taufiq, also the founder Chief Executive Officer of Journey Plus, told the news agency. He said that they had tried to attract foreign tourists to Cox's Bazar in the past, but failed as they did not get what they want as part of leisure tourism. "Foreigners, as part of their leisure travels, want sunbath. They want to take part in beach activities relatively more openly. They want to drink. They want entertainment," said the tourism expert, adding, these are not possible now in Bangladesh's open beach given the country's social norms. Taufiq, also the Secretary General of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Bangladesh Chapter, said the success depends on which model the government follows to attract foreign tourists in the truest sense. He said around a 30-kilometre beach stretching from Cox's Bazar to Inani is already occupied by various commercial establishments. "So, we need to think about proper utilisation of the remaining 90 kilometres of beach if we claim that it's a 120-kilometre beach." BEZA officials said they will give priority to private investors in the Sabrang Exclusive Tourism Zone -- both from home and abroad. From: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/06/179789 Govt releases Tk 11.25b in export subsidy . The government has released the first instalment of export subsidy worth Tk 11.25 billion for the fiscal year 2017-18. Of the amount, Tk 10.00 billion went to the sectors included ready-made garments (RMG), frozen fish and leather, and Tk 1.25 billion to jute and jute goods sector, according to a circular recently issued by the finance ministry. The finance ministry placed the fund with Bangladesh Bank (BB) for disbursement among the exporters on the basis of their respective export value. The government allocated an export subsidy of Tk 40.00 billion for the current financial year. The government provides the cash incentive to help the exporters stay competitive in the international market. From: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/06/179791 Taxmen want to freeze bank accounts of three defaulters . Tax-takers have sought permission to freeze bank accounts of three state-owned entities for realising long-overdue VAT worth Tk 24.33 billion. Furthermore, the Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) under the VAT wing of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has served final notice to Petrobangla for realising some Tk 130.36 billion in unpaid VAT. The government petroleum agency (Petrobangla) also owes to the exchequer another sum of Tk 71.25 billion as current arrear amount of VAT (value-added tax). According to an official estimate, the LTU found an aggregate amount of Tk 221.20 billion in tax arrears lying with four state-owned entities. The three whose bank accounts the LTU seeks to freeze are Titas Gas Company Limited, Bakhrabad Gas Company Limited and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). The tax unit last month sent letters to the NBR for permission to go for the tough action as all of the processes meant for collecting the amount failed so far, officials said. "The unit has intensified its effort to realise arrears and find out VAT evasion through audit of the VAT returns," said one official. Under the move, the unit audited nine large companies and detected Tk 240 million in unpaid VAT. Of the amount, the VAT officials have realised Tk 44 million. The audited businesses are Unique Hotel and Resorts Limited, Partex Furniture Industries Limited, Star Particle Board Mills Limited, Mir Ceramic, Incepta Pharmaceuticals Limited, Aristopharma Limited, SKF Pharmaceuticals, Sinha Printers Limited and United Edible Oil. The LTU has withdrawn VAT rebate for 10 large taxpayers on detection that the rebate has been claimed "unlawfully", the officials said. There are six telecom operators among those companies: Robi Axiata Ltd, Grameenphone Limited, City Cell, Airtel Bangladesh Limited, Banglalink and Teletalk BD Limited. The unit has realized the VAT, taken as rebate, from Southeast Bank Limited, Eskayef Bangladesh Limited, Premier Cement Limited, and Seven Circle Bangladesh Ltd. Nineteen companies also faced legal action last year for non-payment of VAT. The LTU filed cases against the companies for realizing stuck-up revenue worth Tk 15.65 billion. Among the companies, the six mobile-phone operators, WASA, BTRC, BTCL, China Bangla Ceramic, Mir Cement, Global Heavy Chemical, New Zealand Dairy, LM Ericson, Interspeed and Premier Bank are on the list. The LTU collected Tk 367.42 billion in VAT in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016-17, posting the highest growth of about 20 per cent compared to revenue collection in last three years. From: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/06/179823 1 Private credit growth drops . Private sector credit growth dropped 1.12 percentage points in June from a year earlier due to cautious lending and slow export and remittance growth. In June, private sector credit grew 15.66 percent, which is less than the target of 16.5 percent set in the monetary policy for the second half of fiscal 2016-17. One of the reasons for the slow growth could be the banks' cautious attitude towards sanctioning loans, said Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, a supernumerary professor of the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management. “Due to the way you write in the media about default loans, the bankers go for much scrutiny before granting loans.” Chowdhury, also a director of Islami Bank, said many loans have been sanctioned and the borrowers have opened letters of credit for those. But the LCs have not yet matured. “When the goods will arrive, the amount of credit will increase,” he added. Nurul Amin, managing director of Meghna Bank, said the growth has slowed down somewhat but in absolute terms the amount of loans has increased much. Private sector credit increased Tk 105,049 crore in the 12 months to June and stood at Tk 776,058 crore, according to Bangladesh Bank statistics. Amin said a reason for the slow credit growth could be the decline in remittance and sluggish export growth. Last fiscal year, remittance dropped almost 15 percent. “Nowadays you often hear the businessmen say that the trade and commerce are dull. This is reflected in the low demand.” Since the export growth is slow, exporters are taking fewer loans. In fiscal 2016-17, exports grew only 1.69 percent. Although the private sector credit growth was lacklustre, the GDP grew 7.24 percent last fiscal year, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' provisional data. This prompted the central bank to set a private sector credit growth target at 16.2 percent in the first half of the current fiscal year, down from the preceding six months' 16.5 percent. For achieving fiscal 2017-18's budgetary growth target of 7.4 percent, a 16.2 percent private sector credit growth target is enough, said BB Governor Fazle Kabir last month while releasing the Monetary Policy Statement. Alongside the private sector credit, the government's credit from the banking sector also fell drastically. In fiscal 2016-17, the government's borrowing from the banking system slumped 14.78 percent, or by Tk 16,885 crore, compared to the previous year. In the revised budget for last fiscal year, the government's target for borrowing from the banking system was Tk 23,903 crore. Since the government's borrowing from savings instruments increased, there was no need to borrow from banks, said a BB official. The net borrowing from savings instruments stood at Tk 52,417 crore last fiscal year, up 82.43 percent year-on-year. In fiscal 2016-17's revised budget, the government's borrowing target from the savings instruments was Tk 45,000 crore. From: http://www.thedailystar.net/business/private-credit-growth-drops-1444222 Govt seeks $1b in loans from AIIB . Finance minister AMA Muhith on Thursday said that they had sought around $1 billion in loans from the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank for implementation of seven projects. Two of the proposed projects have already been approved by the China-led AIIB, which was established in 2015 for the development of infrastructure in the Asia and the Pacific, he said. The approved projects are improvement of two sub-power-stations in the northern part of the capital and constriction of 181-kilometre pipeline from Bakhrabad to Chittagong to improve efficiency of Titas Gas Field.