Why not Bangladesh?
Sir. I would like to draw your attention to a report by Inam Ahmed on 26th March 2000, with the headline "Kibria's sky-high revenue ambitions tumble down: collection failure leads to Tk 2500 cr bank borrowing". In this context. I would like to mention the following:
The government has borrowed Tk. 13797 crore till December 1999. and from July to December 1999 the government has borrowed Tk. 2508 crore only (The DS). So in 29 years, the government has borrowed only Tk. 13797 crore for ADP.
As per the DS dated 1-3-2000. half of India's budget money is paid as bank interest. India's present budget is US$ 77.8 billion = U^77.8 xlO = Rupees 3.354x10 for the fiscal 2000-2001. Please note that India pays half of its money as bank interest, so actual loan is about 100 times of half of India's budget. It pgianates from 100x1.677x10 . Indian gov-
ernment has taken this bank loan for rapid development keeping the inflation low.
The US government has passed $1.8T budget for fiscal 2000-2001. As per the DS dated 9.3.2000, US government has US$5.7Tn loan. Since 1930 onwards, the US government have been taking loans from banks to keep the inflation low.
So. there is no problem in taking bank loan provided the inflation is controlled. Bangladesh government can borrow four times the annual budget from bank as loan for ADP like that of US and India.
A K M Khairui Anam Road-15 Banani Dhaka
No NAM?
Sir, Soon after the recent visit of the US President to Dhaka, excuses are being sought about Dhaka's inability, logistically. to hold the NAM summit due next year. NAM appears to have ceased to be a topical issue after the end of the cold war. and has become as unworkable as SAARC. Therefore, our government's keenness to hold the expensive summit In Dhaka raised quite a few eyebrows.
Bangladesh cannot manage its own fragile and nebulous politics; so It seems unpractlc al to sight high targets such as the NAM. It is not like conferring honorary degrees. Bangladesh cannot afford to be too ambitious.
A Husnaln Dhaka
Problem in opening L/C
Sir. Recently the government has introduced a new system in opening Letter of Credit (L/C) for import and export. But the community of businessmen in Chittagong criticised this new system and marked it as an unequal step. Earlier the authorities used to send the L/C authorisation form (LCAF) to Bangladesh Bank Chittagong registration unit for its registration to open import/export L/C. During those days it took only one or two days to settle the necessary formalities. But in the new system. LCAF is required to send to Bangladesh Bank Dhaka branch instead of Chittagong. And these formalities take at least ten to twelve days to settle. In this way. though the importers of Dhaka can import their products in no time, the importers of Chittagong fails to compete with them.
In order to solve this crisis, we urge the authorities con-cerned to make necessary arrangements for the greater interest of the importers of Chittagong so that they can open L/C in due time.
Abu Gursel Siddiqui Senior Officer. AB Bank Ltd Chittagong.
Protect domestic industries
Sir, The DS Issue of 24 March. 2000 reports that the Indians are putting obstacles on the way of Bangladeshi garments and Jute reaching the Indian buyers. This speaks highly of their concern to protect the domestic Indu str les/growers. No doubt, it creates problem for us. But they have every right to look after their own interest. Indian consumers always prefer to go for Indian goods instead of the Imported ones. That Is called patriotism.
But what do we do? Almost all our commodities are Imported! Our shop shelves are hih’d with Indian chanachur. Pakistani fruit Juice, Malaysian biscuit etc. And we < rave for these despite the availability of the local ones. We always go for the imported ones, allowing more ami more foreign goods to acquire our market. I do not deny that our entrepreneurs have a lot to Improve. But if we prefer buying foreign goods to the local ones, then how would our domestic industry improve?
A Citizen Dhaka