A government proposal to provide special privileges for private investors wanting to get involved in the power sector has not been well received by the business sector.

The new government proposal was explained at a discussion on Saturday involving finance minister AMA Muhith, he prime minister's energy adviser, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, other senior government officials and the business community..

Beximco has teamed up with a company tied to the Saudi royal family to bid for the billion-dollar BMRE project of the lone oil refinery of Bangladesh, a statement said on Sunday.

"In line with its business diversification objectives, Beximco Ltd is now poised to enter into the oil and energy sector, and has mobilised necessary resources for this purpose," the statement issued in Dhaka said.

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have discovered factories manufacturing adulterated semai, talmichrri (sugar-candy) and gur at Old Dhaka's Begumbazar and Moulavibazar.

A team from RAB-2 led by magistrate ADM Anwar Pasha found three factories, four storehouses and two packaging factories during a search in the areas.

The sari market, this Eid too, is seeing a steady rise in demand for traditional locally made saris.

Markets are livening up with the approaching Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations, and even though sales are yet to hike up, buyers are crowding the markets to catch a glimpse of the new wears on display.

Visits to the market have found huge crowds shifting through the shops at Mirpur's Benarasi Palli and the Dhanmondi Hawkers' Market.

The programme for the sale of rice to poor people holding 'fair price cards' (FPC) was launched on Thursday.

SM Golam Kibria, public relations officer at the food ministry, told bdnews24.com that the programme had started from 10am.

The Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) has innovated a new type of salinity tolerant paddy species for the country's southern area, where percentage of salinity in soil and water is much higher than that of other parts of the country.

BINA officials hoped the salinity tolerant paddy will increase the production of rice per hector in the southern areas of the country.

The High Court has asked the government to continue the operation of the mobile court, for prevention of adulteration in food and price hike of commodities, for two months.

The government has also been asked to explain within three weeks why it should not be ordered to take effective steps towards the prevention of adulteration of food and illegal price hike of commodities.

Open market sale (OMS) of rice was launched on Tuesday to keep rice prices within the reach of the poor people, during the upcoming month of Ramadan.

Food ministry officials said that the sale had started at the in all metropolitan cities and divisional headquarters of the country, including Dhaka, on Tuesday from 10am.

Foreign minister Dipu Moni has revealed that India will allow Nepal and Bhutan to use Mongla and Chittagong ports to export their products to other countries.

Briefing journalists at the foreign ministry on Sunday, Moni said the Indian government will also finance a railway project from Khulna to Mongla port.

Wholesale traders are not anxious about price hikes for chickpeas as there is 'abundant stock', but consumers are worried as chickpeas are already selling at prices higher than the government rate of Tk 44 per kg.

A visit to the Dalpotti (pulse market) at Chawkbazar's Rahmatganj in the capital and conversation with traders of retail markets and consumers revealed that wholesalers were selling chickpeas at Tk 38-40 per kg to retail traders, who in turn were selling chickpeas to consumers at Tk 46-48 per kg.

Financial experts at a discussion on Wednesday slammed the central bank's monetary policy, saying it would fail to tackle inflation.

"Achieving the desired inflation rate of 6.5 percent [by Bangladesh Bank] is no way possible," said former finance adviser to the immediate past caretaker government AB Mirza Azizul Islam.

The rate of poverty reduction does not match the expansion of micro-credit in the country, said the finance minister.

"Poverty alleviation is not reducing at the desired pace in spite of increase in disbursement of micro-credit," said finance minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday, while speaking at the award giving ceremony of the 'Citi Micro-enterprenuership Awards 2009.'

The police have clubbed and tear-gassed thousands of apparel workers off the Dhaka-Narayanganj link road, who had come out on the streets from Kathherpool, Kutubail, Ramarbagh, Shibu Market and Fatulla Post Office Road areas in Narayanganj to protest the minimum pay scales.

At least 20, including police officials, were injured in the sporadic clashes that occurred at Kathherpool and surrounding areas on Monday morning.

From Sunday, the costs of telephone calls to most overseas destinations will be reduced, according to the website of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

These lower prices are part of the decision by the BTRC to bring all calls under a single platform - with callers from now on having to dial 00 to make international calls. Callers will no longer be able to make calls using 012 prefix.

Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has said that the government will amend the money laundering act in the next parliamentary session.

The finance minister was briefing journalists after a meeting with the customs, VAT and tax officials at the Chittagong Circuit House on Saturday noon.

Commerce minister Faruk Khan has expressed his concern that there might be an unstable market during Ramadan because of a vested syndicate group.

"The government has taken the appropriate steps to keep the market stable. But some people might plot to make it unstable," he said at a procession arranged by the Rickshaw-Van Workers' League at Bangabandhu Avenue on Sunday afternoon.

Ready-made garment factory owners are not interested in providing more than Tk 2,400 as minimum wage a month against the workers' demand of Tk 5,000, a parliamentary panel has been told.

Considering the owners refusal, the watchdog on the labour and manpower ministry had recommended providing the workers with conveyance, accommodation facilities and other allowances for the poorly-paid workers.

The central bank has announced 'Agriculture Loan Policy' with a target of distributing Tk 12,600 crore to the farmers in this fiscal year, which is around 9.5 percent of the current national budget and 9.6 percent higher than last year's.

Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman announced the policy at a press conference at the bank's office on Wednesday. Deputy governors of the bank Murshid Kuli Khan and Ziaul Hasan Siddiqui were also present at the press briefing.

Dhaka and New Delhi are finalising the modalities of implementing the US $ 1 billion Line of Credit (LoC) that India offered to Bangladesh last January.

The Bangladesh government is going to ink a deal with India's Exim Bank that New Delhi will route the credit line through.
Highly-placed sources in the Indian government said that the Exim Bank would possibly sign an agreement with Bangladesh government within a month for utilisation of the credit line.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said the wages the owners of the ready-made garment unit pay their workers were "insufficient" and "inhuman".

She made the comment while answering to the questions from the MPs in the parliament on Wednesday.