Staff Correspondent

The Regulatory Reform Commission has recommended that both record and registration of land should be brought under the land ministry.

It also suggested an end to state monopoly in the postal service and steps to relax the approval processes for private borrowing from overseas financial market.

At present land record is maintained by the land ministry while the law ministry is responsible for the registration. 'It creates complicacy and hassles for investors as well as the common people,' RRC chairman Akbar Ali Khan said on Tuesday in a press briefing after the commission's third meeting.

The RRC chairman said if record and registration are brought under the same ministry, it would reduce time lost in the process. It also suggested amendments to the Postal Act 1898 to end the state monopoly in the service. The commission, assigned to recommend business-friendly rules and regulations, stressed that private investors' access to foreign credit should be made easier.

Currently, if local investors want to borrow from international credit market, they have to apply to the Board of Investment and the BoI then forward the applications to the Bangladesh Bank for final approval, he said. The RRC recommended that investors should apply to the central bank directly through their banks instead of going to the BoI.

Aggrieved investors can appeal to the BoI if they are not happy with the service of the central bank, Akbar informed. Private sector investors procured about $50 million from the global credit market last year, but the amount was much less than actual demand. Local investors are lured into foreign loans due to lower interest rate, but often fail to get that because of lengthy BoI procedures, sources in the business said.

The century-old postal act protects the government's monopoly in postal services. The proposed amendments aim at giving private courier services a legal coverage and protecting their booming business. The existing law stipulates that the government can fine any courier service company Tk 500 for delivery of a single letter, Akbar said. 'Though nobody is disturbing them now, the government can stop private courier service any time if it wants citing legal provision,' he explained. The commission did not get much response from the private sector for remodelling outdated rules and regulations, and making them more business-friendly, he said.

The commission is expected to hand over the recommendations to the chief adviser next week. Earlier, the government accepted the two recommendations put forward by the commission in December.

Following the recommendations, the government decided that all gazette notifications and rules and regulations would be published online, while draft regulations would be kept open for public opinions before formulation of laws.

The interim government formed the 17-member commission on October 30 to update administrative rules and regulations and remove impediments to trade, investment and business activities.

The commission constituted three sub-committees headed by Bangladesh Bank governor, National Board of Revenue chairman and the environment and forests secretary.

They have been assigned to deal with three specific areas — foreign loans, import of capital machinery and processing of approval for industrial plants. The commission in a meeting in November decided that it would submit recommendations to the government every month instead of preparing only one report on completion of its one-year timeframe.

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