BANGLADESH

The prime minister has warned the people to remain alert to BNP's 'secret killings and kidnapping across the country' aimed at 'foiling the war crimes trial'.

Sheikh Hasina was addressing a rally at Sheikh Kamal Stadium in Gopalganj on Saturday.

She said no force in the country would be able to halt the war criminals' trial and all incidents of secret killing and disappearance would be investigated to bring the culprits to justice.

"It was Ziaur Rahman who pioneered the politics of killing in Bangladesh," the prime minister said.

"Zia is the first man who betrayed with the freedom fighters and killed scores of them including colonel Taher and major Haider," she said.

"Zia is the first patron of anti-liberation forces. He freed around 11,000 war criminals from the jail and his wife rehabilitated the anti-liberation elements in politics," she said.

"BNP's absolute corruption and tendency of looting everything ruined the country's economy," Hasina said.

"I have nothing to seek from you but your cooperation to build a poverty and hunger-free Bangladesh."

Earlier, the prime minister inaugurated the commissioning of first 100MW furnace oil-based power plant in Gopalganj and laid the foundation stones for three other projects. The projects are – Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Eye Hospital, Gopalganj Vocational Training Centre and Sheikh Sayera Khatun Medical College and Hospital.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the 100 mega-watt power plant coming up in Gopalganj on Saturday.

Hasina, who reached Gopalganj in the morning, laid the foundation stone for a medical college in Tungipara and also paid respects to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at his grave.

Hasina is scheduled to take part in nine other programmes before addressing a public rally at Sheikh Kamal stadium in the afternoon.

According to Sheikh Mohammad Yousuf Ali, Awami League president of Gopalganj Sadar Upazila, "The prime minister will hand over scholarships to meritorious students before inaugurating the silver jubilee of Government Sheikh Mujibur Rahman University College and the re-union of former students."

Hasina will also lay the foundation stones for Sheikh Fazilatunnessa Mujib Eye Hospital, the under-construction technical training centre in Gopalganj Sadar Upazila and Sheikh Saira Khatun Medical College and Hospital.

Finally, she will inaugurate the power plant in Gopalganj.

"The work on the plant is complete and it can generate up to 100 mw electricity from its 12 units," said A.T.M. Zahirul Islam Majumder, the plant's project manager.

He added that the plant had earlier started production on an experimental basis from last August. "With the prime minister's inauguration, we will go for full production."

Review the 2011.

The outgoing year saw the Election Commission (EC) taking polls in Bangladesh further closer to electronic voting machines or EVMs, to replace the traditional voting system with a modern one in future.

The outgoing EC led by A T M Shamsul Huda, however, had its share of dissatisfaction with the government since it did not respond to the top electoral body's army deployment call during the maiden elections to the newly-formed Narayanganj City Corporation. The polls, however, ended peacefully.

The EC also drew flak from various quarters, including the government, for its announcement not to hold the elections to the bifurcated Dhaka City Corporations (DCC South and DCC North), though it had earlier taken initiatives to conduct the polls.

The independence of the EC also came under serious question after the army's failure to send in troops to guard against vote rigging in the Narayanganj city polls and by-polls to the vacant constituencies.

The year 2011 was, indeed, a busy time for the commission as it conducted elections to over 300 municipalities and several thousand union councils of the local government, apart from by-elections to Habiganj and Brahmanbaria municipalities, holding dialogue with registered political parties in two phases, holding polls to the five reserved women's seats in parliament and activities relating to its own overhaul.

After partial use of EVM in Narayanganj City Corporation and Chittagong City Corporation polls that proved to be a success, the EC decided to go for full-fledged use of the machines in the Comilla city polls slated for January 5 next year.

Over a hundred-thousand voters cast their votes using EVM at 58 polling centres in nine of 27 wards during the Narayanganj polls.

Announcing the schedule for polls to the newly-formed Comilla City Corporation, chief election commissioner A T M Shamsul Huda said on Nov 22, electronic voting machines would be used for the first time at all polling centres in Comilla elections, dismissing protests from the BNP.

While BNP on Dec 1 sent a formal letter to the EC, seeking an EVM for examination, the poll panel said there is no law per se to send an EVM for examination. The electoral watchdog asked BNP to send a team of experts to the commission secretariat to test the machines.

The tenure of the current three election commissioners, including the chief election commissioner, who assumed office during the army-backed caretaker government in 2007, will expire in February 2012.

The commission has also made necessary arrangements to hold the next general election using EVM. Most of the political parties including Awami League are in favour of EVM use, while BNP and its allies are against it.

Defending the use of EVM, CEC Shamsul Huda said the initiative has been in line with the modern world and to reduce administrative complications, electoral costs, post-poll violence, quick announcement of results and ease the task of managing elections.

For Narayanganj polls, the EC did not seek army deployment. But following demand from Awami League rebel candidate Selina Hayat Ivy and BNP-backed Taimur Alam Khandaker, it sent sent a letter to the Armed Forces Division (AFD) on Oct 16, asking it to deploy four companies of army personnel for five days starting Oct 28 morning to maintain law and order in the areas going to polls.

The EC did not know that the government would not deploy the army in Narayanganj. Later, the CEC on Oct 30 afternoon said they would have an understanding with the government on the issue.

In the meantime, only hours before the polls, Taimur announced his boycott of polls for non-deployment of the army and to protest use of EVM.

The governemt in a letter on Nov 22 explained the non-deployment of army in the polls and said it was due to a 'misunderstanding'.

Shamsul Huda later said the army deployment could not happen as the letter [seeking deployment] had been issued without any discussion with the ministry and also because the defence minister was abroad.

EC-GOVERNMENT DISPUTE

The Election Commission and government got tangled in a dispute following the EC's failure to ensure army in the Narayanganj polls and holding polls to the divided Dhaka city corporations.

The EC had earlier sent letters to the local government ministry, but failed to get a positive response. When the government asked the EC to hold the divided DCC polls, the EC said it was not possible for them as they were nearing end of their tenure.

Local government minister Syed Ashraful Islam said, "The incumbent EC's tenure is coming to an end. So, they have expressed their inability to stage the elections within the remaining time. But it is Election Commission's duty to stage elections. The EC does not have the right to say 'yes' or 'no' to an election proposal."

PRESIDENT'S DIALOGUE

In another controversial move, president Zillur Rahman on Dec 22 started dialogue with political parties at Bangabhaban for taking their opinion on appointing the next chief and other election commissioners.

Though CEC Shamsul Huda praised the initiative of the president, he expressed his reservations over the fruitfulness of the move.

Reducing prices of essentials was the first of the five top priority agendas on Awami League's election manifesto. Now, nearing three years of its rule, the point-to-point inflation is twice what it was when the party took power.

In fact, the point-to-point inflation has been in the double digits for the last six months.

SOARING PRICES

In line with its election manifesto, the government has imported large quantities of food and created a consumer rights protection directorate, attempting to keep prices within people's reach. But all efforts have been in vain.

According to the statistics bureau, point-to-point inflation in December 2008 was 6.03 percent, while in November this year it was 11.58 percent.

The figures are far off the government's estimated target of a 7.5 percent inflation this fiscal. The finance minister, who was optimistic about the economy even two months ago, said he was uncertain about meeting the 7 percent growth target, recently.

Speaking at seminar organised by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, A M A Muhith admitted that efforts to tame inflation had gone in vain.

"Investment levels have remained under 24 percent of the GDP for a decade now. That is not a happy picture for a country that is aiming for 7-8 percent growth," he said. "I am not sure where we are heading."

FUEL-LED INFLATION

Fuel demand for rental power plants saw its imports almost double over the last year, according to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation.

BPC chairman Abu Bakar Siddique told  that the demand for Bangladesh had been estimated at about 7 million tonnes of fuel in the current fiscal that would cost Tk 480-500 billion.

The petroleum corporation imported fuel worth about Tk 285 billion in the last 2010-2011 fiscal that ended in June. The year before that Bangladesh's fuel imports cost about Tk 165.66 billion.

Even after raising the fuel prices four times this year, the latest being on Thursday, the government has been spending billions subsidising it. To fund this massive subsidy, the government borrowed profusely from the banking sector at the beginning of the fiscal in July.

The foreign exchange reserves fell under pressure and the borrowing in the first four months of the fiscal reached 10 times more than what it was in the same period last year. In fact, in the first four months, July to November, government borrowings neared the Tk 189billion target fixed in budget and then crossed it.

Economists hold that this high fuel expenditure is wreaking havoc on an otherwise stable economy which seems to be performing well considering, revenue, export and remittances.

Prominent economist professor M A Taslim explained that the government had struck deals with the power plant companies that they would get fuel at a certain fixed price. "So now the government is compelled to subsidise fuel because it is legally bound to do so."

Mustafizur Rahman, the executive director of the Dhaka-based research organisation Centre for Policy Dialogue, said the higher bank borrowing was depriving the private investors, which in turn was affecting the entire economy.

Bangladesh Institute Development Studies director-general Mustafa K Mujeri had explained to : "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."

Meanwhile, in early December, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics said fuel price hike was triggering inflation.

"Though food prices are falling, inflation remained steady last month since the impact of fuel price hike is now hitting other sectors," BBS director general Shahjahan Ali Molla told the press in the bureau's first-ever monthly inflation press meet.

PRESSURE ON RESERVES

At the end of the year the central bank's reserves stood at $9.35 billion, which would not be sufficient for paying off three months' imports.

During the year, the reserve has frequently been above the $ 10 billion mark, but rising import costs, particularly that of fuel, brought it below that level.

TAKA CHEAPER

The value of taka against US dollar dropped by Tk 10 in the past one year to Tk 80. Economists say this is owing to the pressure on forex reserves.

On Dec 27, Bangladesh Bank said it had traded dollar for Tk 81.60, while private and foreign banks sold dollar for even higher. Last year in December, the price of dollar was around Tk 70 to 70.25.

In comparison taka has depreciated by almost 15 percent in 2011.

AGRICULTURE FLOURISHING

Rice import dropped to almost zero last year and the government announced that barring natural disasters, no need will arise to buy rice for the next one year's supply.

Over 1.5 million tonnes of rice are reserved in the government warehouses, according to the finance minister.

"We have officially estimated that there will be no need to import rice in the next one year, if no big disaster occurs," he said.

The ample stock is a result of bumper productions in the past few seasons, non-governmental organisation BRAC's executive director Mahbub Hossain told .

There will be no need to import rice until 2012 as the reserve is adequate, Mahbub, a former director-general of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said.

Following increase in the prices of all types of fuel, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has raised bus fares by Tk 0.15 per kilometre on inter-district and long-distance routes.

"The new fares will come into effect from Jan 2," BRTA chairman Ayubur Rahman Khan told the media on Saturday after a meeting with transporters.

Fares would now go up from the existing Tk 1.20 to Tk 1.35 for each kilometre.

He said the maximum fare of buses plying in Dhaka and Chittagong cities would be re-fixed soon.

"There will be mobile courts to prevent collection of additional fares by public transporters plying in the cities," the BRTA chief warned.

The government on Thursday hiked the prices of all types of fuel by Tk 5 per litre each for the fourth time this year. The increased price came into effect from Thursday midnight.

This year, the government has increased the fuel prices by Tk 17 in four phases, and public transport fares also followed the suit, raising fares as many times.

The government in October increased bus fare by Tk 0.05 per kilometre and CNG-run auto-rickshaw fare by Tk 0.14 per km. Fare for inter-district and long distance bus and minibus was increased to Tk 1.20 from Tk 1.15 per kilometre.

On Friday, the costing committee formed to fix the fares held a meeting at the BRTA office which decided to hold a meeting on Saturday on the approval of the revised transport fares.

After Saturday's meeting, the BRTA chairman told reporters that the costing committee recommended increase in bus fares by Tk 0.23. "But it was set at Tk 0.15 on mutual decision in consultation with the communications minister."

"The new bus fares will be effective from Monday and a gazette will be issued on Sunday to this effect," he added.

Ayubur Rahman said that the new fares will, however, not be effective for the double-decker buses.

He said during the adjustment of the fares, they had considered 16 issues, including the cost of spare parts, in keeping with the demand of the transport owners since the latest round of price hike of fuel prices.

Chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) M N Iqbal, acting secretary of the Roads and Highways Department M N Sadik and director of Dhaka Co-ordination Board Dr S M Salehuddin, among others, were present at the meeting.