The tug of war was going on for a long time, pulling towards everyone. But now it is known that pushing is going on, one side is pushing the other side. According to responsible sources, this is exactly what is going on with the Matarbari deep sea port. This push is going on between Coal Power Generation Company and Chattogram Port Authority.

The formal handover process of the seaport has been pending for several months, despite the agreement on paper under pressure. Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) is not responding despite repeated letters. As a result, there is no transfer. Responsible sources of the Power division of the Ministry of Power and Energy said this.

According to sources, a proposal was made earlier to make a channel for the Matarbari coal-based power project to facilitate the movement of coal-carrying lighter age ships. At that time, there was a tug of war between India and China over Sonadia deep sea port. The Prime Minister's Office was asked to propose the construction of a deep sea port against the proposal of the Coal Power Generation Company. In view of that, the navigability was increased to 18.5 meters.

Coal Power Generation Company completed the construction of channel and jetty as usual. It was informally inaugurated on 29 December 2020. The first deep sea port in Bangladesh started with the coal-carrying ship of Matarbari Power Plant. On November 16, 2022, a meeting was held for the transfer of Matarbari channel and dividend distribution under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office. In that meeting, it was decided to transfer by June last year (2023).

On paper, Matarbari Channel was handed over to Chattogram Port Authority on September 20, 2023. The Chattogram Port Authority did not accept the charge even though it was understood on paper. But CPA is taking the charge of using the port right.

At the time of acceptance on paper, it was said that the charge would be accepted after verifying the validity. A letter was sent to CPA on 22 January 2024 seeking a representative for the inspection. Even after a few weeks, CPA has not responded to that letter or sent a representative. On February 14, the demand letter was again issued by the Power Division. Still, there was no response from CPA.

The letter of the Power Division also said that the responsibility of the EPC contractor will end after the completion of the joint survey as per the contract. Later the EPC contractor will have to pay demurrage if asked for dredging or other works. It will waste a lot of money of the state and if proper maintenance is not done, the navigability will decrease due to sedimentation again.

A letter is issued to send a representative and take necessary measures to convey the proximity of the CPA for management and maintenance. The letter signed by the Joint Secretary Tahmina Begum was sent to the Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Shipping. Still there was no solution. Even though it has been a long time, the process of transfer of charges is hanging due to the negligence of the port authorities.

And this has become a burden on the Coal Power Generation Company. They have to be guarded by 20-30 security personnel. Again due to lack of regular maintenance, it is feared that silting will create a crisis. Dredging has already been done by spending several crores of money.

Chattogram Port Authority Secretary Md. Omar Farooq, when called, avoided saying that he was in a meeting. 

Ahead of the holy Eid-ul-Fitr, the price of gold in the country's market has increased yet again. The new price of 22 carat gold per bhari (11.664 grams) has been fixed at Tk. 1 lakh 17 thousand 573. This is the highest price of gold in the history of the country. The previous price of this quality gold was Tk. 1 lakh 15 thousand 823 taka.

Bangladesh Jewelers Association (BAJUS) announced the new prices in a press release on Monday (April 8). These prices will be effective from tomorrow, Tuesday (April 9).

According to the notification, the price of acid gold (pure gold) has increased in the local market. As a result, the new price of gold has been fixed considering the overall situation.

According to the new price, the price of 22 carat gold per bari (11.664 grams) will be Tk. 1 lakh 17 thousand 573. Apart from this, the price of gold has been set at Tk. 1 lakh 12 thousand 208 per bhari, 21 carat, Tk. 96 thousand 228 per bhari, 18 carat and Tk. 80 thousand 190 per bhari traditional method.

Earlier, on April 6, Bajus had fixed the price of one bhari of best quality 22 carat gold by Tk. 1,750 to Tk. 1,15,824. And the price of 21 carat gold is Tk. 1 lakh 10 thousand 575 per bhari, 18 carat gold is Tk. 94 thousand 770 taka and the price of traditional gold is Tk. 78 thousand 965 which came into force from 7th April.

Bajus adjusted the gold price 7 times this year. And in 2023, the price was adjusted 29 times.

The existing officers and employees of the transferee bank-company or finance company shall not be retrenched by the transferee bank-company before completion of 3 years. However, after 3 years, the reorganized or transferee bank-company can take appropriate decisions after evaluating the performance of the said officers-employees.

These things have been said in the bank and financial institution merger policy issued by Bangladesh Bank on Thursday (March 4).

According to the policy, the Managing Director, Additional Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director of the defunct bank/finance company cannot be held in any position in the merged bank-company.

The board of directors of the merged bank-company may appoint any officer of the post of managing director, additional managing director and deputy managing director of the defunct company on a new contractual basis if it deems fit. However, if the transferring bank/finance company is a government-owned institution, then the government can retain/transfer the managing director, additional managing director and deputy managing director of the concerned bank/finance company to its other bank/financial institution.

Bangladesh Bank has informed that after the merger, no incumbent director of the transferee bank/finance company can be appointed as a director on the board of directors of the transferee bank-company. However, after the lapse of 5 years, the shareholders of the transferor bank in proportion to their shareholding, subject to the requisite qualifications and suitability may be included as directors on the board.

Further, in the case of those who were in charge as directors at the time of amalgamation, after 5 years as one of the qualifications for becoming a director, the condition of regular retention of those directors in the loan/investment bank/financial institution without any rescheduling/reorganization must be fulfilled within the period of 5 years.

According to the policy, the transferee bank/finance company shall generally give priority to the payment of deposits of the transferee bank/finance company to the payment of individual depositors or the activation of their accounts and banking transactions.

In the case of payment of institutional depositors, if a payment action plan is sent for the approval of Bangladesh Bank for the purpose of full payment at a specified time, Bangladesh Bank shall give approval to the proposed plan, with or without necessary modifications, for the trial implementation of the said action plan.

CPD's Distinguished Fellow Professor Dr. Mustafizur Rahman said, the rate at which the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is increasing in Bangladesh, the foreign debt position is increasing at a much higher rate.

He commented that if this situation continues, the ability to repay the foreign debt will decrease as well as the opportunity to get new loans will decrease due to the decrease in credit quality.

CPD (Center for Policy Dialogue) organized a roundtable titled 'Bangladesh's External Public Borrowings and Debt Servicing Capacity and their Reasons for Concern?' at the Westin Hotel in Gulshan, Dhaka, on Thursday (April 4) at 11 am.

In this meeting, the Prime Minister's economic adviser Moshiur Rahman, distinguished fellow of CPD Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, economists, experts and private sector entrepreneurs spoke.

CDP Distinguished Fellow Professor Dr. Mustafizur Rahman said, to deal with the dependence on foreign loans and the pressure of debt repayment, emphasis should be placed on domestic resource collection.

In this context, he said, in the last few five-year plans, big targets have been set for collection of taxes and revenue against GDP, but they have not been met. If this situation continues, new loans will have to be taken to repay the interest and principal of foreign loans.

This economist also urged to speed up the implementation of projects to reduce debt pressure.

He said more foreign financial aid is currently in the pipeline. But as the speed of payment is delayed, the tax burden on the people of the country will increase. Besides, the speed of project implementation will decrease further.

He advised to use the opportunity to take more 'concessional' (flexible) loans to make the implementation of the project profitable with foreign loans.

Dr. Mustafizur Rahman said, earlier, ERD was very strict in the case of 'non-concessional' (inflexible) loans. In the case of such loans, communication was done cautiously. This is no longer the case.

He said several sources of flexible loans have emerged, including the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank. All these sources should be used to increase the adoption of flexible loans.

Advising on being stricter in determining projects, lenders and conditions in foreign loans, he said, OCD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) has prepared a term sheet in all these matters. It has been said, which project should go to which donor, which project should take loan under which conditions.

In this regard, he also said that in order to avoid such problems, the International Monetary Fund should be increased at the rate of 0.5 percent every year in addition to the increase in domestic resource accumulation.

However, he also commented that there is no effective initiative to fulfill this goal.