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Celebrating sacrifice

Muhammad Abdul Mazid
EID Hl Azha is celebrated worldwide to honour the willingness of Hazrat Ibrahim (pbh) to sacrifice his dearest son Ismail as an act of obedience to Allah, before He intervened to provide him with a sheep to sacrifice instead. The basis for Eid ul Azha is the 196th verse of second Surah, Al Baqara ( The Cow), and the word 'Eid' appears in the fifth Sura al-Mai'da (The Table Spread) of the Qur'an, meaning 'solemn festival.' In the Indian subcontinent the festival is known as Bakr-Id because of the tradition of sacrificing goats.
Eid ul-Azha has an impact on our socio-economic arena. It corresponds with performance of Hajj by the financially able Muslims, and the national economy has to transact a substantial amount, mostly in foreign currency, on this occasion. This year 1,10,0576 pilgrims from Bangladesh have gone to Saudi Arabia for performing Hajj. Each pilgrim is expected to spend, on average, Tk.300,000, which adds to around Tk.33 billion ($415 million) in all. The I lajj has been a major source of foreign currency income for the Saudi economy and an important foreign exchange expense for other countries. Bangladesh economy has to handle banking transactions along with foreign exchange and job creation to help Hajj performers.
Sacrificing cattle is the central purpose of Eid ul Azha, leading to huge financial involvement and economic activities. According to Bangladesh Tanners' Association (BTA), about 35,00,000 cows and 50,00,000 goats will be sacrificed this year. This will involve transaction of around Tk. 160 billion. India exports about 10 million cows to Bangladesh annu-
ally, out of which around 4 million are sent during the Eid (both formally and informally). Bangladesh government should earn Tk.2 billion revenue atTk.500 taka per cow.
Eid ul Azha is also the main season for procuring hides and skins. 60% of total export of hides and skins is made following the celebration of this festival. Markets for spices and refrigerators witness bumper sales, hovering around hundreds of billions of taka ahead of Eid. The money market, which usually gets volatile during the Eid festivals, has remained calm in a fairly liquid position this time.
The performance of Hajj and the sacrifice of cattle during Eid ul Azha generate money supply, are expansionary in nature, promote trade and business, create jobs, and are a boon for the economy. The cost-effectiveness of Hajj management could be better for the economy if we had our own infrastructural facilities to accommodate our pilgrims in an efficient manner.
The Eid cattle market has been left to the three Ss -syndicated traders, smugglers and snatchers. It is reported that syndicated traders have targeted a market ofTk.320 billion from Bangladesh this time. They will earn this money by exporting cows on credit and importing raw hides at lower prices through unofficial channel. For smuggling of cows, they are receiving rawhide and bone, fuel, edible oil, gold, silver, cigarettes, jute. Thereby, the Bangladesh economy loses huge revenue and its own prospect of exporting leather and leather products abroad.
Although the government provides credit facilities to tanneries, no credit is given to hide merchants who face difficulties in running the business. Ultimately, they have to depend on smugglers who advance money for procurement of hides and skins. For preservation of raw hide salt is an essential ingredient. The government has been urged to allow duty-free import of 40,000 tons of salt in the interest of overcoming any ploy that the salt traders' syndicate might resort to in hiking price.
Cattle traders going from border areas to different cities, including Dhaka, have to pay toll at many places. It starts from the border guards of both sides, who are report-edly taking Tk.5,000 to Tk.7,000 for a pair of cows. Toll has to be paid to police when a truck crosses a district. Highway police have to
be paid separately. There are many other points of toll collection. Thus, a prospective source of revenue is remains untapped due to management failure.
A special business spree starts for the transportation sector during the Puja and Eid festivals as a large number of people travel to their village homes to celebrate the occasion.