The news of Indian company Malabar Gold & Diamond's doing business in Bangladesh has raised concerns among those involved in Bangladesh's gold industry. Panic has spread, especially among goldsmiths and factory owners. They think that if Indian company Malabar brings readymade Jewellery to Bangladesh, it will lose millions of goldsmiths involved in this industry. All the hundreds of years old jewelry factories will be closed. At the same time, the possibility of exporting Bangladeshi Jewellery in the global market will be ruined.

It is learned that Malabar Gold and Diamond announced to do business in Bangladesh at the 3rd Bangladesh Economic Forum held in the second week of this month. Although the company has its main business office in Dubai, the Indian company said it will bring gold Jewellery worth 100 million to Bangladesh in the next three to five years. Amir CMC, Director of Finance and Administration, Malabar Gold and Diamonds, made the announcement at a forum held at the Movenpick Grand Hotel in Dubai.

The country's goldsmiths and factory owners panicked after Malabar's announcement. They said that mainly those involved in the country's gold smuggling ring and conspiracy to destroy the gold industry are fueling Malabar to come to Bangladesh. They have also announced to stop Malabar from coming to Bangladesh at any cost to save the country's gold industry and make it export-oriented.

Dinesh Chandra Pal, general secretary of Dhaka Goldsmiths Workers' Union, said that an unscrupulous group was involved in smuggling foreign readymade Jewellery into the country. They want foreign readymade jewelers to come and do business in Bangladesh. This cycle seeks to destroy Bangladesh's potential gold industry in the international market. Now they are conspiring to bring Indian company Malabar to Bangladesh. He also said that at present, due to the arrival of readymade Jewellery from abroad, the local artisans do not get jobs. For this, goldsmiths are moving to other professions.

Dinesh Chandra Pal said, "We have sent letters to different ministries of the government at different times to stop the import of readymade Jewellery." We have repeatedly requested the government to give the opportunity to the country's gold industry to become the main export product after garments. But there is no response from the government in this regard. But there is a huge demand for jewelry made by our artisans abroad. The finishing and beauty of the handicrafts made by the artisans here is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

Calling the attention of the Prime Minister, Shankar Basak, senior co-president of the Dhaka Goldsmiths Workers' Union, said that foreign companies should also stop importing foreign Jewellery. Otherwise the gold artists of this country will die without eating. At the same time, the country's export-oriented industrial sector will be completely destroyed.

Gangacharan Malakar, president of the Dhaka Goldsmiths Workers Union and founder president of Bajus, said Dubai is the main market for gold exports around the world. All the countries have their showroom there except Bangladesh. The success of this industry will not come till we start exporting gold Jewellery. The government's export income will not increase. The government should not allow foreign companies to do business but should give us the opportunity to export the Jewellery we have made. We will bring more export income to the government than garments.

Mentioning that there is an opportunity to export Bangladeshi Jewellery all over the world, he said, "We did take initiative in this regard more than once." But did not get any response from the government. Now the government should take the initiative taken by Bashundhara Group and make it bigger.

Private sector’s Shahjalal Islami Bank is in trouble with realisation of the loan from Dhaly Construction and grant of new loan of Tk 408 crore to the company. The loan was disbursed without adequate collateral and verifying the financial status of the customer.

According to the report of Bangladesh Bank, the then managing director and board of directors, along with the officers of the relevant departments of the bank's branch and head office, cannot avoid the responsibility of this irregularity, said a report of the Bangladesh Bank.

It is known that Dhaly Construction took a loan of Tk 129 crore in 2013 from Trust Bank's Dilkusha branch in the capital. At the end of 2015, the loan amount increased to Tk 156 crores.

In November 2015, Dhaly Construction applied to Shahjalal Islami Bank to acquire the Trust Bank loan. Dhanmondi branch of Shahjalal Islami Bank acquired Dhaly Construction Limited's loan of Tk 118 crore from Trust Bank in December of that year.

In December, Shahjalal Islami Bank disbursed an additional Tk 188 crore funded and Tk 70 crore unfunded loan to Dhaly Construction Limited. In August 2017, Shahjalal Islami Bank gave another loan of Tk 115 crore. Of this, 85 crores are funded and 30 crores are non-funded. But Shahjalal Islami Bank could not tell Bangladesh Bank how much money has been loaned and against which assets.

According to the report, Shahjalal Islami Bank gave the loan forcefully to Dhaly Construction due to the failure of various companies to pay their debts. As a result, at the end of April this year, the amount of loan disbursed by Shahjalal Islami Bank to Dhaly Construction stood at Tk 408 crore. Out of this, 350 crore are funded and 58 crore non-funded.

Shahjalal Islami Bank was unable to collect the money despite repeated efforts. Dhaly Construction has mortgaged 721 acres of land and a building measuring 37,000 square feet as security against the loan.

In this regard, a deputy managing director of Shahjalal Islami Bank, on condition of anonymity, told the media that “Dhaly Construction is in a good position among the country's construction companies. We have business relationship with them since 2015. The company is facing big challenges due to the epidemic. Although we are hopeful of recovering the loan, it will take more time to get the money back.”

Regarding cashing the bill of Dhaly Construction through another bank instead of Shahjalal Bank, the Deputy Managing Director said that Dhaly Construction did this due to the need for cash. They thought that if they deposit the bill in the bank, the money will be deducted to pay off the loan.

However, when asked about the violation of the bank's board of directors policy in disbursing loans, he refused to make any comment.

Dhaly Construction chairman Rafique Uddin told the media that “Our company has implemented large road and construction projects including several university buildings in the country. We have been facing challenge since Covid pandemic as some our projects had to be stopped. Moreover, the abnormally high prices of construction materials also increased the project cost."

When asked about repayment of loan from Shahjalal Islami Bank, he said that new projects will be taken up and the loan will be repaid. The business relationship with the bank will also continue.

Dhaly Construction Advisor MM Mizanur Rahman told the media that there were some errors in the documents. It will be resolved quickly. He said, the bank can collect the debt by selling the company's assets. Apart from this, the company is involved in several construction projects. If the work of these projects is completed, the loan can be paid.

According to the central bank report, it was directed by the Board to take security equal to the investment while disbursing the loan. But, only Tk 90 crore of collateral (land and building) was taken against the funded loan of Tk 188 crore. The board was not informed of the investment with less security.

According to the report, Shahjalal Bank could not provide any information to the central bank's inspection team about the amount of money invested against specific work orders and the number of bills received in respect of those work orders.

The report said that the board of the directors of the bank advised taking a legal opinion before approving funded loans of Tk 188 crore and non-funded loans of Tk 70 crore and mortgaging 721 khata land. But the bank did not take into consideration the legal opinion while giving the loan. As no collateral is taken for new loans, the bank's investment becomes risky.

Country's both the bourses, Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) today plunged further due to mainly price fall in large-cap securities.

DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), slid 65 points, or 1.01 per cent, at 6,413 at the end of the day. The DS30, the index that consists of blue-chip companies, went down 0.93 per cent to 2,277, while the DSES, the Shariah-complaint index, plummeted 0.80 per cent to 1,406.

Turnover at the DSE dropped 3 per cent to Taka 1,297 crore which was Taka 1,343 crore on the previous day.

At the DSE, 26 stocks advanced, 153 declined and 182 did not show any price movement.

Bangladesh Monospool Paper Manufacturing topped the gainers' with an 8.64 per cent rise. Fine Foods, Rahima Food Corporation, Eastern Cables, and Eastern Lubricants also advanced over 5 per cent.

Apex Foods suffered the highest correction, sliding almost 13 per cent. Far East Knitting, BDCOM Online, Navana CNG, and Apex Spinning declined more than 9 per cent.

The CASPI, the all-share price index of the Chattogram Stock Exchange, decreased 164 points, or 0.86 per cent to end at 18,895.

Of the issues on the port city bourse, 34 advanced, 104 declined, and 80 remained unchanged.

- BSS

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) today approved six projects with Tk 7,018 crore.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of ECNEC Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday (October 11).

The premier joined the meeting virtually from her official Ganabhaban residence here while ministers, state ministers, planning commission members and secretaries concerned were connected to it from the NEC Conference Room in the city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.

After the meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan gave details in the press conference.

thousand 362 crore 63 lakh will come from the government funding, Tk 2 thousand 386 crore 48 lakh from foreign funding and Tk 269 crore 62 lakh from the organization's own funding. 

The remittance inflow sinks to lowest in seven months. The inflow of remittance dropped around 25% in September to $1.54 billion compared to August earnings. 

Bangladesh received $2.04 billion in remittances in August, according to central bank data published Sunday (2 October).

The total remittance inflow in the current financial year is $5.67 billion, which was $5.41 billion during the same period last year.

According to experts, the cost of living for expatriates increased due to global inflation. Additionally, they are preferring hundi over legal remittance channels as they are getting Tk5-6 per dollar more than the bank exchange rate.

They had expressed concern that the Hundi channel may become more active. 

Remittances dropped to a seven-month low in September as the central bank fixed the dollar exchange rate for inward remittance. Bangladesh received a lower remittance of $1.49 billion last February.

Bankers said the downfall happened after, on the advice of the central bank on 12 September, the banks fixed the dollar exchange rate for remittances at Tk108.

However, bankers had initially feared that remittances may decrease due to fixing the exchange rate. The exchange houses said that the remittances came in less in the first week after the rate was fixed as remitters could not be given higher rates. 

A visit to the website of several exchange houses including Moneygram and Western Union shows that they are paying Tk106-107 per dollar for remittance inflow. However, the houses also charge $1-2 as transfer fee. 

As a result, those who send remittances in small amounts do not get an average rate of more than Tk104-105 a dollar. 

At present remittance through Hundi yields Tk113-114 per dollar. Due to fixed exchange rate at banks, the difference between dollar price of Hundi and the banking channel is at least Tk6-7. 

Overall exports declined by 7.52% in September this year compared to the same period in 2021 after 13 months of recovery from COVID pandemic, according to the latest official figures.

But exports of readymade garments reached 10.27 billion dollars in the first quarter of FY2022-23, which is 13.41% higher than previous year’s corresponding time, according to data released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) for July-September.

Knitwear exports, however, declined by 9%, while woven declined by 5.66%, it said.

BGMEA Director Md. Mohiuddin Rubel said on Sunday that BGMEA had already shared early indication of growth slowdown from September onwards, which is apparently reflected in export data for September. 

The global retail market is disrupted by many challenges starting from post covid container freight and supply chain crisis, price hike of raw materials, and then anticipated recession in the global economy, which is halting retail sales and demand for clothing, he said. 

Rubel said buyers were following cautious steps to make their inventory and supply chain optimum, so some of them are even holding back production and orders. 

“Altogether it has been quite a fluid and vulnerable situation, where we have all the strengths and possibilities to grow given our sustainability and competitiveness strides, yet the global economic outlook makes it difficult to foresee something bright for the final quarter of the year 2022,” he added.

- UNB