18-10-2018

UNITING PEOPLE EVERYDAY
ThURSDAy, DhAkA, OCTOBER 18, 2018, kARTik 3, 1425 BS, SAFAR 7, 1440 hijRi
Former captain of Bangladesh Cricket Minhajul Abedin Nannu uncovered the World Cup
Trophy -2019 in front of National Cricket Academy on Wednesday.
Photo: Star Mail
NBR rolling out e-fiscal devices
to check VAT evasion
DHAKA : The National Board of
Revenue (NBR) has taken an initiative
to procure and install 10,000 electronic
fiscal devices (EFD) in 13 types of business
entities from next year in a move
to check value added tax (VAT) evasion,
reports UNB.
The new EFD will replace the electronic
cash register (ECR) and the point
of sale (POS). The government this year
made EFD use mandatory in 13 types of
business entities in city corporation
areas and in district towns to check
Value Added Tax (VAT) evasion.
The 13 types of businesses included
hotels, restaurants, fast food shop, confectionaries,
jewelers, beauty salons,
furniture shop, RMG shop or boutique
shop, electronics shop, community center,
all business entities in posh shopping
mall, departmental stores, general
shop or super shop, wholesalers and
large retail stores. Recently the government
has issued an order making the
installation of EFD in the retail shops
across the country mandatory.
According to the NBR officials the
price for one EFD would cost Tk
25,000-30,000.
"Although the government is spending
the money for the 10,000 business
entities the NBR hopes that it will bring
transparency in the accounts of these
entities and that would bring a positive
result," a senior official of the NBR said.
He said that EFDs will help curb evasion
as these would be connected with
the server that will generate real time
data of sales at shops.
The EFDs will be connected online
with a server at the NBR. Any entry
from a particular business entity will be
registered at the server of the NBR.
"This will bring transparency and the
scope to evade the tax will be restricted.
As a result the revenue collection will be
improved," the senior NBR official said.
If any business entity does not use
this EFD or any deviation of using this
is proved that entity will have to pay Tk
20,000-50,000 as fine. If this kind of
offence committed repeatedly then the
NBR will lock the offender's Business
Identification Number (BIN).
The NBR earlier planned to buy
10,000 ECRs for large shops, wholesalers,
restaurants and other businesses
as part of its target to implement the
VAT law 2012 from fiscal 2017-18.
The plan was scrapped after the government
deferred the implementation
of the law by two years. Last year, it
identified 8,007 entities eligible for fitting
the electronic sales devices.
These business houses will get the
EFD on priority basis and other business
houses have to procure the EFD
later. At present, several thousand
shops use electronic cash registers and
point-of-sale machines. However, all of
the business entities are not currently
using the device to issue sales invoices
to customers and hide actual transaction
figures from taxmen.
The NBR had made the e-cash
mandatory in 2008 for 11 types of businesses:
hotels, restaurants, confectionaries,
jewelers, beauty salons,
wholesalers and large retail stores.
Allegations are widespread that many
businesses do not use the e-cash register
even after installation to evade VAT
allegedly in connivance with field officials
of the revenue authority.
Uttarkhan fire
death toll rises
to 5
DHAKA : A man who along with seven
others suffered burn injuries in a fire
incident in the city's Uttarkhan area
early Saturday succumbed to his injuries
five days after the incident on
Wednesday morning, taking the death
toll to five, reports UNB.
Dablur, 33, lost his battle around 9 am,
said Bacchu Mia, in-charge of Dhaka
Medical College Hospital police camp.
The fire broke out at their ground-floor
flat in a two-storey building around 4 am
on Saturday following a leakage in the
gas pipeline, leaving eight inmates
injured.
Most of the victims were garment
workers and one of them was a rickshaw
puller.
The injured were taken to the
DMCHwhereAzizul and his wife
Muslima alias Urmi, Purnima and Sufia
died earlier.
PM opens
Bangladesh
Chancery in
Saudi Arabia
RIYADH (SAUDI ARA-
BIA) : Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina on
Wednesday opened the
newly constructed
Chancery Complex of
Bangladesh Embassy here.
She launched the twostorey
complex unveiling
its plaque at a ceremony at
around 3 pm local time at
the Diplomatic Quarter in
Riyadh.
The Prime Minister during
her visit to Saudi Arabia
in June 2016 laid the foundation
stone of the 3,819
square metre complex.
The Chancery Complex
was constructed with a cost
of Tk 51.47 crore.
The Prime Minister
planted a sapling on the
premises of the Bangladesh
Embassy.
BNP leaders' motorcade comes under
attack in Gazipur, 10 hurt
GAZIPUR : At least 10 people were injured as the motorcade of BNP leader
Fazlul Haque Milon came under attack while visiting different puja mandaps in
Kaliganj upazila on Wednesday afternoon, reports UNB.
Local BNP leaders said that BNP organising secretary and its Gazipur district
unit president Milon went to visit different puja mandaps in the upazila and
exchange views with the Hindu community people. After visiting Jamalpur
puja mandap when he was heading to Mokatarpur union along with BNP leaders
and activists, some miscreants attacked their motorcycles and private cars,
leaving 10 people injured. Fazlul Haque Milon claimed that Local Awami
League, Jubo league and Chhatra League activists carried out the attack.
However, local Awami League leaders denied the allegations.
ACC to quiz Transcom chairman today
DHAKA : Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will quiz Transcom Group
Chairman and chief executive officer Latifur Rahman on Thursday for allegedly
earning illegal wealth, reports UNB.
The ACC sent a letter signed by its deputy director Nasir Uddin to the
Transcom chairman on Thursday (October 11) asking him to appear before it
on Thursday (October 18), ACC public relation officer Pranab Kumar
Bhattacharjee told UNB. Latifur Rahman will have to appear before the commission
at its headquarters with photocopies of his national identity card and
passport at 10 am to face interrogation over his and his family members' alleged
involvement in amassing illegal wealth and money laundering.
2 female 'militants' surrender
in Narsingdi; operation ends
NARSINGDI :Two female
suspected militants surrendered
on the second day of
'Gordian Knot' operation at
another 'militant den' at
Gangpar in Madhabdi municipality
here on Wednesday.
Khadiza Akther Meghla and
Mou surrendered in response
to the request of law enforcers
around 2:35 pm.
After their surrender, the
operation that began on
Monday night was declared
over.
UNB's Narsingdi
Correspondent from the spot
said the two women were
taken out of the building in an
ambulance of Narsingdi fire
service and now they are
being moved to Dhaka.
Earlier, the law enforcers
had asked them several times
over loudspeakers to surrender.
Briefing reporters around
3pm after the surrender of the
two female militants, CTTC
chief Monirul Islam revealed
the identities of the two militants
who were killed during
Monday's operation at
Bhogiratpur in Sadar upazila.
The two deceased militants
were Abu Abdullah Al Bangali
and his wife Aklima Akhter
Moni, said the CTTC chief.
Members of Rapid Action
Battalion (Rab) in a drive
arrested four female militants,
including Meghla, Mou
and Moni, from the capital's
Mirpur area in August, 2016
in connection with a case filed
over militant attack at Holey
Artisan, said Monirul.
After their release from jail
recently, they tried to continue
their militant activities
from hideouts in different
areas. Later, they took shelter
separately in two areas of
Narsingdi, he added.
A case will be filed with
Madhabdi Police Station in
this connection.
CTTC members in association
with the local police kept
the 7-storied building owned
by Afzal Haji cordoned off
since Monday night.
Earlier, members of CTTC
unit and Special Weapons
and Tactics (SWAT) conducted
an operation at a 'militant
den' in a five-story building at
Bhogiratpur on Tuesday
afternoon and recovered the
bodies of two suspected militants.
Deputy Inspector General
(DIG) of Dhaka Range
Chowdhury Abdullah Al-
Mamun was also present.
The Lighthouse That Wrecked
More Ships Than it Saved
INTERESTING NEWS
For more than forty years a lighthouse
stood on a large anvil-shaped peninsula
jutting into the Tasman Sea near Jervis
Bay, in southern Australia. It stood at a
place where it shouldn’t have, luring
ignorant ships into the very rocks they
were trying to avoid.
The cliffs around Cape St George just
south of Jervis Bay was notorious for
shipwrecks, and so in the mid-19th century,
it was decided that a lighthouse
was needed for the safe navigation of
coastal shipping.
In 1857, the Colonial Architect
Alexander Dawson and an assistant surveyor
E.F. Millington, began looking for
a site suitable for a lighthouse on Cape
St George. Unfortunately, Dawson was
more interested in the ease of construction
rather than providing an efficient
navigation aid. When the Pilots Board,
which was the controlling authority,
went to verify the location Dawson
chose they found that the site was not
visible from the required approaches.
They also found the map prepared by
Millington and Dawson suffered from
“discrepancies of so grave a character
that it is impossible to decide whether
either position marked on the map really
exists.” The board also suspected that
Dawson chose the site solely because it
was situated closer to a quarry he
planned to obtain stones from.
Quader urges
people to vote
for 'Boat' again
NOAKHALI : Awami
League General Secretary
Obaidul Quader yesterday
urged people to cast their
votes to 'boat', the electoral
symbol of ruling Awami
League, in the upcoming general
election so that the party
can come to power again
under the leadership of Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina.
"We should resist communal
forces and help non-communal
forces emerge in the
upcoming national election.
That's why I urged all to cast
your votes to boat again," he
said. Quader, also the Road
Transport and Bridges
Minister, came up with call
during his visit to Amarpur Sri
Sri Radhakrishna Goura Nitai
Assrom Puja Mandap at
Kabirhat upazila in the district.
He also urged the Hindu
community to remain alert
against the conspiracy of BNP
and its allies.
Earlier, the Awami League
General Secretary visited Sri
Sri Jagannath Mandir Puja
Mandap at Basurhat under
Companiganj upazila here.
Later, he distributed sharees
among 5,000 poor women of
the areas. Deputy commissioner
of the district Tanmmay
Das, superintendent of police
Md Ilias Sharif, Basurhat
municipality mayor Abdul
Kader Mirza, Companiganj
upazila chairman Mizanur
Rahman Badal, Kabirhat
municipality mayor Jahirul
Haque Raihan, Kabirhat AL
president Nurul Amin Rumi
The law enforcement members took out two suspected female militants on Wednesday from Nilofa
Vila at Madhobdi in Narsingdi to Dhaka .
Photo: Star Mail
Germany joins other European donors
in securing safe drinking water in city
DHAKA : The Economic Relations
Division of the Ministry of Finance and
the KfW Development Bank acting on
behalf of the German Federal
Government have signed a loan agreement
of EUR 90 million to finance safe
drinking water supply for the city
dwellers.
Germany has teamed up with other
major European Development Partners
- the French AFD, the Danish DANIDA,
the European Investment Bank and the
EU.
This joint European - Bangladeshi
programme is called in short "Saidabad
III".
The project will be implemented by
the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage
Company (DWASA).
It will ensure that in future, the water
for 8 million people in Dhaka will be safe
and reliable.
Once this project is implemented, the
present sources of water (groundwater
and the highly polluted Sitalakhya
River) will be replaced by water taken
from the mighty Meghna River near
Haria, Narayanganj, about 26 km in the
East of Dhaka.
From Haria, the raw water will be
pumped to the Saidabad Water
Treatment Plant, where an additional,
third water treatment plant will be constructed,
increasing the water production
by 450,000 m³ per day to
daily production of 900,000 m³.
"This will enable the Dhaka Water
Supply and Sewerage Company to serve
more people in Bangladesh's capital
city," said German Ambassador in
Dhaka Peter Fahrenholtz.
"And it will make it services less
dependent from the use of groundwater
and therefore more resistant to climate
change, especially during dry seasons
and in view of the increasing salinization
of its aquifers," he added.
The overall project costs are expected
to be about EUR 570 out of which the
Government of Bangladesh will provide
EUR 140 million.
The signing ceremony was attended,
among others, by Kazi Shofiqul Azam,
Senior Secretary and Khalilur Rahman,
Chief (Europe Wing), both ERD,
Ministry of Finance, Marie-Annick
Bourdin, and Peter Fahrenholtz,
Ambassadors of France and Germany,
respectively, CarenBlume, Deputy Head
of Development Cooperation, German
Embassy and Regina Maria Schneider,
Director of the KfW Regional Office for
Bangladesh and Nepal and Quamrun
Nahar Laily, Superintending Engineer
and Project Director for Saidabad III,
DWASA.
and Kabirhat upazila chairman
Editor: Kamrunnahar Tapash Ray Sarker, Shuly, News Editor : Saiful Islam, printed at Sonali Printing Press, 2/1/A, Arambagh 167, Inner Circular Road, Eden Complex, Motijheel, Dhaka.
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the minister during his visit.