BANGLADESH

About 28.5 tonnes of Hilsa fish have been seized from the coastal area in Chittagong district on the second day of the 11-day ban on catching Hilsa.

The fisheries department and Chittagong zone coastguards conducted a special drive in the sea, adjacent to Kutubdia and Anwara areas in the early hours of Friday and seized the Hilsa and 12 fishing boats.

None was arrested in this connection.

Chittagong zone coastguard official Lt Commander Jasimuzzaman told that some of the seized Hilsa was distributed among orphanages and the remaining sold on auction.

He also said they seized 10,000 metres of fishing net worth Tk 70,000 from Kalatali and Himchhari areas of Cox's Bazar district on Thursday night.

A mobile court of the fisheries department conducted a drive in Karnaphuli Market at Sholoshahar in the port city for the second consecutive day on Friday morning.

District fisheries official Pravati Dey told that all sorts of transport, sale and stock of Hilsa and Jatka (juvenile Hilsa less than 23 centimetres in length) are prohibited during the 11-day ban on Hilsa catching.

She said they fined some Hilsa traders of Karnaphuli Market Tk 17,000 for defying the ban.

To increase Hilsa fish production, the government on Sept 27 imposed a ban on Hilsa catching at four points of seven districts for 11 days, starting from Oct 6, during the main breeding season.

The restricted four points, stretching 7,000 square kilometres of waters, are Shaherkhali-Haitkandi in Chittagong, Uttar Kutubdia-Gondamara in Cox's Bazaar, Uttar Tazumuddin-Pashchim Syed Awalia in Bhola and Latachapli in Patuakhali.

The government said the offenders would be jailed by the mobile court for one to six months with a minimum fine of Tk 1000. In case of violating the ban again after being convicted, the punishment would be double.

Mobile courts are conducting drives in the rivers and bazaars of Bhola, Patuakhali, Lakkhipur, Noakhali, Feni, Chittagong and Cox's Bazar districts to enforce the ban.

The opposition chief whip, who was injured in a clash with police, has returned to the country after receiving treatment in the United States.

Zainal Abedin Farroque landed in Dhaka at around 8.15pm Friday night where he was greeted by Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka and BNP MPs.

"No matter how much they torture me, they won't be able to silence me," Farroque told the press outside the airport.

"The government wanted to shut me up with torture. But I will remain with my leader and the anti-government movement to the end of my life," he said.

Farroque came under police attack when he was leading a procession of some 25 MPs from Farmgate to the parliament building on July 6, the first day of an opposition-sponsored 48-hour shutdown.

He received primary treatment at the United Hospital and was taken to the United States on July 13.

A couple has been killed in a traffic accident in the city.

Police said 'Mizan', and 'Lipi', were killed on the spot when a truck hit the motorcycle they were riding at Russel Square in Dhanmondi on Friday evening.

The incident took place around 10:30pm, Dhanmondi Police Station officer-in-charge Moniruzzaman told.

Investment in industries will be disrupted and the inflationary pressure will increase if the government continues taking loans from banks, economists say.

According to latest information of the Bangladesh Bank, the government borrowed Tk 78.92 billion in the first two and a half months of this fiscal, over 20 times more than it did in the same period last year. The central bank contributed Tk 41.02 billion and the commercial banks the remainder.

Over the same period in the last fiscal, the government borrowed Tk 3.61 billion.

Former finance advisor to the caretaker government A B Mirza Azizul Islam said, "The government has to buy fuel oil at a high price to feed the rental power plants. It is facing problem to provide the money and has to borrow from banks to resolve the problem."

According to the Bangladesh Bank, the rate of opening L/Cs (letters of credit) for fuel oil import increased 100 percent in July-September period.

Bangladesh Institute Development Studies (BIDS) director-general Mustafa K Mujeri said, "The government is borrowing money from the banks at an alarming rate. The flow of loans to the private sector will decrease if it continues. Industrialisation in the country will hamper."

Azizul said achieving the targeted seven percent GDP growth will be difficult because industrialists will not get much to borrow.

Both Mujeri and Azizul also were concerned that flow of money into the market will increase because of the government's taking loans from banks, causing inflation to spike even more.

"Prices of essentials will also rise," Azizul said.

Mujeri said, "Opportunities for the private sector to borrow money shrink when the government takes loans from commercial banks. On the other hand, new money hits the market if the government takes loans from the central bank, raising inflation."

The former chief economist of the Bangladesh Bank suggested the government see to it that it does not cross the limit of taking loans.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, inflation was 11.29 percent in August, highest in three years and six months.

The government borrows money from foreign and local sources to finance the budget deficit. The government set a target to borrow Tk 189.57 billion from banks to finance the shortfall in the current fiscal and Tk 156.80 billion in the last fiscal.

On the other hand, foreign loans worth around Tk 186.85 billion are expected in this fiscal: of this amount, Tk 56.27 billion will be spent to paying up loans taken earlier and their interests.

The expected foreign loan in last fiscal was Tk 109.2 billion. Like the last fiscal, the flow of foreign loan is not so good this fiscal.

According to the Economic Relations Division (ERD), most of the foreign loans received in the first two months of the fiscal have been spent on paying past loans and their interests.

Azizul said, "We saw in the past that the government had taken loans from banks to implement annual development programme (ADP). But the rate of implementing ADP is not so good at the start of the fiscal."

According to the latest information given by the planning ministry, only six percent of the Tk 460 billion ADP has been implemented in the first two months of this fiscal.