Cabinet nod to sovereign wealth fund
The cabinet yesterday approved in principle a Finance Division proposal to create the Bangladesh Sovereign Wealth Fund, including three draft laws, to make the existing law more suitable for the times. The three draft laws are the Bangladesh Chartered Accountants Act, 2017, the Trade Organizations Act, 2017, and the Ground Water Management for Agriculture Act, 2017. The approvals were given in the weekly Cabinet meeting held at the Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. The Bangladesh Sovereign Wealth Fund was approved with a view to making foreign reserves more useful during times of need.
The Cabinet also agreed to ratify two drafts of IMO conventionsthe International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM), 2004, and the International Convention on the Control of harmful Anti-fouling Systems on Ships (AFS), 2001.
After the meeting, Cabinet secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam briefed the media about the outcome of the meeting. According to him, the authorised capital of the Sovereign Fund would be USD 10 billion and its primary capital would be USD 2 billion, which would be channelled from Bangladesh Banks Foreign Exchange Reserve.
The present size of our foreign exchange reserve is around USD 3032 billion. So, the reserve will not be affected, or our economy will not face any trouble if we take USD 2 billion from there to create the sovereign fund, Alam explained.
He said many countries have developed identical funds. Alam said the Cabinet has, however, asked the commerce ministry to update the law in the light of the changes made in trade and commerce before giving the final approval.
The chartered accountants law is the Bangla version of the Bangladesh Chartered Accountants Ordinance, 1972, and subsequent amendments made during the military regimes from August 15, 1975, to April 9, 1979, and March 24, 1982, to November 11, 1986.
Alam said the new law was framed in line with the Finance Reporting Act (FRA), passed in the Parliament earlier. The new law proposes that members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) be called the Associate Chartered Accountant and the Fellow Chartered Accountant instead of only an associate member or a fellow member, respectively.
The draft also proposes the empowerment of the ICAB with the authority to suspend or cancel the membership of a fellow for any misconduct or failure to perform according to the FRA. This is a new feature of the law, Alam said.
He also said the draft of the trade organizations law was basically the Bangla version of the Trade Organizations Ordinance, 1961.
He further said the Ground Water Management of Agriculture law was framed in Bangla, which is a revised version of the Ground Water Management Ordinance, 1985.
The law proposed the imposition of a maximum fine of Tk. 2,000, or seven-day imprisonment, or both for installing any tube-well without a licence and the approval of the upazila chairman. According to the law, the judgment of any offence under the act can be delivered through summary trial, he said.
