e_Paper, Monday, July 03, 2017

News
MONDAY,
Khagrachhari-Rangamati road link still
suspended 3 weeks into landslide
• Nuruchsafa Manik,
Khagrachhari
NATION
Disconnected by fatal landslides on
June 13, the road link between Khagrachhari
and Rangamati districts
have not been restored yet, causing
immense suffering to the locals.
Sources said because of heavy
rainfall, at least three sections of
the 63km Khagrachhari-Rangamati
road is inundated in water. Moreover,
due to the landslides, the road
is covered in muds and potholes;
commuting is particularly risky
through 10-12 points between Mahalchhari,
Khagrachhari and Manikchhari,
Rangamati.
Locals in both the districts complained
that some unscrupulous
CNG-run autorickshaw and motorcycle
drivers, as well as boatmen,
were taking ill-advantage of the
crisis by charging high fare.
Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune
on Saturday, several commuters at
Fishery Ghat in Mahalchhari said
they were being extorted as there
were no other means of communication
other than boats.
“The bus fare to Rangamati was
Tk70. But now, the boatmen are
charging us Tk200,” said Makbul
Hossain.
Sudarshan Chakma said: “I have
to take boat rides twice every day to
go to work, which takes much longer
than usual. Before, it took an hour to
go to the office, now it takes three.”
Commuters at Kesing in Mantula
Para, Rangamati said CNG-run
Sweden-Bangladesh relationship in hot water after
journo harassed in Hasina’s Stockholm event
• Tribune Desk
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Bangladesh ambassador to Sweden
was summoned by the Nordic
country’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday
to explain an incident of harassing
a Bangladesh-born Swedish
journalist by Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina’s security detail during the
premier’s recent trip to Stockholm.
On Friday, the journalist, Anwar
Hossain, while being interviewed
by the Radio Sweden, claimed he
was literally tossed out from the
official photo op, taking place at
Stockholm’s Rosenbad building,
of the Bangladesh premier and
her Swedish counterpart, Stefan
Löfven, by people protecting
Sheikh Hasina, just because “he
looked like a Bangladeshi and they
did not want any Bangladeshi without
state press credentials around.”
autorickshaws were charging double
fare for a single trip.
“Before, the autorickshaw fare
for a trip to Khagrachhari from
Rangamati took Tk200, but now it
costs Tk500-600 per person. In addition,
we have to walk around 4km
on the way,” said Bir Bala Tripura.
“It has been 20 days since the
road link was snapped, yet the
road authorities have taken zero
steps to repair the broken parts of
the road. Because of this situation,
Anwar went further in claiming
that the security men forced him to
delete the pictures he had captured
on his smartphone.
Radio Sweden introduced Anwar
as a “dissident journalist who
fled to Sweden after being falsely
accused of murder in Bangladesh.”
It also reported that the Swedish
Ministry for Foreign Affairs has expressed
regret over the incident.
In a failed attempt to water
down the controversy, Bangladesh’s
envoy in Stockholm, Golam
Sarwar, on Thursday, told the
Radio Sweden on record that he
believed that the Swedish Foreign
Ministry’s security and media officers
had been involved in the
decision to force journalist Anwar
Hossain to delete photos.
Officials at the Swedish Foreign
Ministry were not happy with Sarwar’s
statement.
“It is extremely important to
more than 500 families in Manikchhari
are facing a lot of inconvenience,”
said Bijoy Chakma.
The lack of road connectivity is
affecting locals farmers too.
Uday Sankar Chakma, owner of
a fruit orchard in Rangamati, said
fruits and vegetables were going
to waste because a good number
of buyers were unable to come and
collect the produce.
“We faced extensive losses due
to the landslides and the heavy
rains. Whatever we had left is now
rotting in the orchards,” he told the
Dhaka Tribune.
When contacted, Md Emdad
Hossain, executive engineer at the
Rangamati office of Roads Highways
Department, said it would
take around 15 days to filled up the
cracks and potholes and remove
the mud from the road.
“Then, hopefully, light vehicles
will be able to use to road,” he
added. •
A section of the Khagrachhari-Rangamati road in Kutubchhari area in Rangamati collapsed during the landslides on July 13,
2017. The authorities concerned have not taken any initiative yet to repair the road DHAKA TRIBUNE
stress that what the ambassador
[Golam Sarwar] said was not right.
We are going to ask the ambassador
to come in tomorrow [Saturday]
and will ask how he managed to get
that impression,” Patric Nilsson, a
press officer of the Swedish Foreign
Ministry, said while talking to the
Radio Sweden later on Thursday.
Meanwhile, after the meeting
on Saturday, Sarwar told the
Bangla Tribune that the journalist
Anwar is actually a defendant in a
murder case in Bangladesh and has
taken political asylum in the Nordic
country.
He also clarified details of the
meeting between him and Swedish
Foreign Ministry officials.
“The Swedish authorities
stressed on the fact that officials
and personnel from their side were
not involved in the incident. However,
I managed to settle the issue.
Relations between the two countries
cannot be strained over such a
small matter,” he said while talking
to the Bangla Tribune.
The Swedish Bar Association and
the country’s premier union of journalists,
Journalistförbundet, however,
do not believe that the incident
of ejecting Anwar is a small one.
Strongly criticising Sweden
Foreign office officials for failing
to protect Anwar, Anne Ramberg,
general secretary of the Swedish
Bar Association, called on her
government to demand an apology
from the Bangladeshi envoy to
Sweden.
In a letter addressed to Swedish
Foreign Minister Margot Wallström
and issued on June 30, the Journalistförbundet’s
chairman Jonas Nordling
expressed frustration over
the incident and asked his government
to distance itself from the
“violation of Anwar’s right to work
as a journalist.” •
7
JULY 3, 2017
DT
Budget deficit
likely to be
7.46% of GDP
• Asif Showkat Kallol
ECONOMY
Even as the National Board of Revenue
imposes more supplementary
duties on imports, the budget
deficit is likely to widen further to
7.46% of gross domestic product
by the end of the new fiscal year,
according to Finance Division prediction.
The budget deficit will increase
to Tk1,66,000 crore from the current
target of Tk1,12,276 crore, officials
said. The total rise of the deficit
will be Tk44,834 crore while the
size of the total GDP outlay will be
Tk22,23,600 crore.
Finance Division officials said
the NBR may collect Tk2,05,000
crore compared to earlier target
of Tk2,48,190 crore in tax because
of the non-implementation of the
new value-added tax law.
According to the preliminary
data, the NBR exceeded the revised
target of overall tax collection of
Tk1,85,000 crore last fiscal year.
The achieved amount is Tk1,85,071
crore.
“It’s a good news that the NBR
achieved the revised tax collection
target last fiscal year though the actual
target was Tk1,70,000 crore,”
said an official.
The total tax collection target
set for the NBR in the last fiscal
year was Tk2,03,152 crore.
NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman,
on his Facebook post, said the if
NBR was “not so engaged with the
efforts to implement the new VAT
law, there would have been more
collection last fiscal year.
He said an additional amount
of Tk22,579 crore could be collected
as VAT, especially from large
business organisations this fiscal
year, if the new law was implemented.
Finance Division sources said
the deficit could be wider than
Tk1,66,000 crore this fiscal year if
the planning ministry fails to implement
development projects of
Tk57,000 crore funded by foreign
sources.
According to the Planning
Commission, an amount of up to
Tk40,000 crore foreign aid, out of
Tk57,000 crore, can be disbursed in
the current fiscal year.
A high official of the Finance Division
said the budget deficit will
widen by up to Tk10,000 crore.
But he said the deficit will be met
by loans from banking system and
saving instruments.
However, State Minister for Finance
MA Mannan said the current
fiscal year’s budget deficit will increase
by up to Tk20,000 crore. He
said the deficit will be met by loans
from commercial banks.•