The country’s business leaders on Sunday demanded low-cost bank loans, rescheduling facilities, deferred payment of loan instalments and waiver of port demurrage due to the suspension of business activities caused by the nationwide shutdown, curfew, general holidays and internet outage centring the quota reform movement.
They made the demands at a views exchange meeting with the prime minister’s private industry and investment adviser Salman Fazlur Rahman at the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority conference room in the capital Dhaka.
Business leaders also highlighted the issue of the repairing of the country’s image overseas due to the recent violence over quota reform movement that killed more than 200 people.
They said that that both the local and export and import businesses were almost shut for one week since July 18 after an internet blackout and the imposition of curfew to contain the student protest.
Although the government restored internet on a limited scale and eased the curfew, the local businesses were yet to start in a full swing and entrepreneurs were incurring huge losses, they said.
Under the circumstances, business leaders demanded deferred payment of the instalments of loans, low-cost loan facility to pay workers’ wages and also deferred payment for the gas and electricity bills, meeting sources said.
‘As per the directions from the prime minister, I listened to the concerns of the business community, and we will take initiatives to resolve these issues,’ Salman F Rahman said at a briefing following the meeting.
He said that the businesspeople had expressed their support for the government, and in return, the government would provide the necessary support to them.
The prime minister’s adviser said that normalcy had largely returned to the country and that it would continue to improve.
According to meeting sources, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Ashraf Ahmed said that the businesspeople in Dhaka had suffered a big blow due to the recent unrests centring quota reform movement.
Now it would be a big challenge for the government to address allegations of human rights violation, he said.
There will be no incidents of human rights violations if the process of bringing people involved in violence to justice follows proper legal procedures, Ashraf said.
He suggested that the government should brief the international media every day to inform the world that the government was following proper legal procedures.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services president Russell T Ahmed said that due to the internet outage, the sector had lost some clients.
He feared that the shift of clients could lead unemployment in the sector.
The BASIS president suggested that the government should develop a green channel for the country so that no event could hamper the business activities.
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Salim Osman demanded waiver of port demurrage for the next one month, saying that businesses could not release or ship their goods for the past 15 days.
He also demanded low interest loan for the payment of wages as the export and production in the factories were hampered.
Leathergoods and Footwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association of Bangladesh president Syed Nasim Manzur urged the government to relax the 120 days’ time frame for the export proceeds realisation.
He said that many shipments remained stuck at the port and some consignments had been facing delayed discounts and so the proceeds realisation time should be extended to 160 days.
At the start of the meeting, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry president Mahbubul Alam said that amid the unrest situation, the government and the businesspeople should have to work together to protect the image of the country.
He urged the readymade garment factory and textile mill owners to pay the workers’ wages by August 7, saying that it would help to build the image of the country amid the volatile situation.
During the briefing, Salman F Rahman said that businesspeople raised five issues, including congestion in port, bank-related problems, difficulties at the National Board of Revenue, gas and electricity and internet.
Already the decision for restoring 4G mobile internet has been announced and separates meeting would be held to resolve the other issues, including port congestion and waiver of demurrage, he said.
He said that businesspeople demanded waiver of bank loan interest, deferred payment for instalments and rescheduling in some cases.
These issued would be discussed in a meeting with the Bangladesh Bank and the finance ministry and also a separate meeting would be held with the NBR in this connection, Salman said.
