Shahjahanpur police station of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has recovered a mobile phone of iPhone-13 model from Keraniganj in Dhaka district. The phone was mugged a year ago from Park Circus in Beniapukur, Kolkata, India.

On Sunday (June 30), under the leadership of Sub-Inspector (SI) Milton Kumar Deb Das of Shahjahanpur Police Station, the iPhone-13 model mobile phone was recovered from Keraniganj in Dhaka district.

Shahjahanpur Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Sujat Kumar Saha confirmed the recovery of the mobile on Sunday afternoon.

He said, Motijheel Division Deputy Commissioner (DC) Hayatul Islam Khan will give details through a press conference.

It is known that on July 26 last year, the iPhone used by Mautusi Ganguly was stolen from Park Circus in Beniapukur Thana area of Kolkata. Later she filed a general diary at Beniapukur police station. At one point the Indian cyber police informed Moushumi Ganguly that the phone was no longer in Kolkata. The phone was smuggled into Bangladesh. Now they have nothing to do. Desperate for the lost phone, Moutusi finally contacted Sub-Inspector (SI) of Shahjahanpur police station Milton Kumar Das through social media. Mautusi came to know that SI Milton had recovered many lost phones of the citizens of the country. After a long year, SI Milton Kumar Dev Das of Shahjahanpur police station recovered the stolen phone.

In this regard, SI Milton Kumar Dev Das said, I used to give regular updates about the phone to the victim Moutusi Ganguly. At some point, maybe Moutusi Ganguly had given up on the phone but I didn't give up. Finally found the IT support phone. I recovered the phone from Keraniganj this morning. The person who was using the phone in the country is a mobile phone shopkeeper. He bought the phone from another person for only Tk. 17 thousand. The seller told him that he bought the mobile from India.

It is known that Mautusi Ganguly's phone will be handed over to her through the Indian High Commission. The owner of the iPhone, Indian citizen Mautusi Ganguly, a resident of Kolkata, thanked the Bangladesh Police after learning about the recovery of the mobile. 

The Jatiya Sangsad (JS) has passed the budget of Tk. 7 lakh 97 thousand crore for the fiscal year 2024-2025.

Finance Minister Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali proposed to pass the budget in the JS session on Sunday (June 30) and it was passed by voice vote of the parliament members.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury presided over the session.

In the session, in the presence of most of the members of the government and opposition parties, 251 cut proposals were brought against the 59 approval demands on the budget. It was decided to discuss three sanction demands (Ministry of Law, Education and Social Welfare). At the end of the discussion, the approval demands were accepted in the JS by voice vote. After that, the Finance Minister raised the proposal to pass the 'Specification Bill-2024' to approve the expenditure of a maximum of Tk. 12 lakh 41 thousand 752 crore 32 lakh 09 thousand and it was passed by voice vote.

At this time, JS leader and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina along with government and opposition parliamentarians clapped on the table and welcomed the journey of implementing the country's budget.

Earlier, the opposition Jatiya Party members of parliament Hafizuddin Ahmed and Hamidul Haque Khandokar and Independent member of JS Pankaj Nath, Abul Kalam and Md. Nasser Shahriyar Zahedi participated in the discussion on the proposal to cut the demand for approval in the proposed budget. However, those retrenchment proposals were voted down.

This year's budget is increasing by 4.6 percent compared to the last financial year 2023-24. In this budget, the revenue target is Tk. 5 lakh 41 thousand crores. The remaining Tk. two lakh 56 thousand crores will be taken as a loan. Annual Development Program (ADP) worth Tk. 265 thousand crore has already been approved.

In the new financial year, black money owners are getting an opportunity to legalize their undeclared assets without facing questions about the source of income. According to the proposed budget, irrespective of the prevailing laws of the country, no authority can raise any question if a taxpayer pays 15 per cent tax on immovable property including flats, land as well as cash. Despite strong criticism from inside and outside Parliament, the proposal was upheld.

In the new financial year, the benefit of duty-free import of cars for members of parliament is maintained. The proposed budget proposes to impose 25 per cent duty and 15 per cent VAT by cutting the duty-free facility on car imports by MPs. But to cancel the import of cars under their duty-free facility, the Presidential Order of 1973 has to be amended. Only after that the import of such cars can be taxed. But no such bill has been raised in the JS yet. As a result, the duty-free facility for MPs' car import remains intact. However, there is a policy decision to pass the bill in the future.

In the budget of the new financial year, the overall deficit has been estimated at Tk. two lakh 56 thousand crores. The government has set a target of collecting Tk. 90 thousand 700 crore from foreign sources and Tk 160 thousand 900 crore from domestic sources to meet the budget deficit. The government plans to take 1 lakh 37 thousand 500 crore rupees from the bank to meet the deficit in the next financial year's budget. Apart from the banking sector, 23 thousand 400 crore rupees have been taken from the non-banking sector. Out of this, Tk. 15 thousand 400 crore will be taken from savings certificates.

In this year's budget, government officials appointed from July 1 have an opportunity to be included in the universal pension scheme instead of post-retirement pension benefits. New recruits of autonomous and state-owned enterprises are covered under this scheme. This system will be introduced from July 1, 2025 for new recruits in other government institutions.

And the tax-free income tax limit of Tk. three and a half lakh will be maintained. The budget has set a growth target of 6.75 percent. And the target of holding inflation is 6.5 percent. In order to control inflation, the proposed budget of the next financial year has proposed to reduce the tax at source on daily commodities. For this reason, the tax rate has been reduced to one percent on the credit cards of the suppliers of daily essential food products like rice, wheat, potato, onion, corn, edible oil, salt and sugar.

Finance Minister Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali proposed a budget of Tk. seven lakh 97 thousand crore in the JS on June 6. Which is about Tk. 36 thousand crores more than the budget of the current financial year. The budget passed on Sunday will be effective from July 1 tomorrow.

The Bangladesh University Teachers' Association Federation (BUTAF) has announced an indefinite strike demanding the withdrawal of the notification of the 'Pratyaya' scheme of universal pension. In this situation, Education Minister Mahibul Hasan Chowdhury Naufel said to monitor the program of university teachers and take measures.

He said this at a press conference after the first day of HSC and equivalent examinations at the International Mother Language Institute auditorium in the capital on Sunday (June 30) afternoon.

To a question from the journalists, the Education Minister said that who will come under universal pension is the decision of the Executive Department of the government. The Ministry of Education is with the decision taken by the government. The teachers are giving their demands to the government, the government can decide on this. The Ministry of Education has nothing to do here.

He said that university teachers are not considered government teachers. They have their own structure. Discussions with teachers agitating by boycotting class exams to demand withdrawal of pension scheme verification are ongoing. The university teachers have given the program; the decision will be informed after observing it.

He also said that it is not appropriate to comment on the government's decision. And the pension scheme is a matter of the Ministry of Education and not the Ministry of Finance. From 2025, all government employees will be included in the universal pension scheme. We will discuss the issue of teachers again.

At this time, the HSC examination of Sylhet division will start from July 9, said the Education Minister.

The minister said that next year's examination will go further. This year there was an early flood. We will arrange for examination during dry season. The exam will be held in April next year.

Foreign Minister Dr. Hasan Mahmud said that foreign dependence has been reduced a lot in the development budget. Now we turn down many foreign loan proposals if they are not suitable or desirable for our country. We have achieved that capability under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. However, considering various aspects of the country and global economy, some foreign loans have to be taken.

On Sunday (June 30) afternoon, he faced reporters after the unanimous passage of the Tk. 797,000 crore budget proposed by the National Assembly for the fiscal year 2024-25 with the slogan 'Smart Bangladesh's dream in the cycle of sustainable development'. The minister said this in response to a question about the extent of foreign dependence in the budget.

The foreign minister said that once during the BNP period, before the budget, the finance minister had to go to the Paris consortium with a begging bag. During their time, especially in the development budget, foreign dependence was more than 50 percent. Today it has come down to 15-20 percent. And we have turned back, and turn back, many loan proposals, starting with the World Bank.

Dr. Hasan Mahmud said that some foreign loans have to be taken for the sake of overall and global economy. For example, we are partners of World Bank, Asian Development Bank. There is provision for us. If you don't take it, it lapses, so you have to take it on a case-by-case basis.

Terming the criticism of the budget as traditional, the foreign minister said that every time after the budget is proposed and passed, a group says that the budget is ambitious and not implementable. But in the last 15 years, our budget implementation rate is 92 to 96 percent. The country has progressed, the per capita income of the people has increased, poverty has come down from 41 to 18.5 percent and extreme poverty from 25.5 to just 5 percent, the average GDP has surpassed that of India and long ago surpassed that of Pakistan. Most importantly, our development progress is being appreciated globally today.

Meanwhile, the foreign minister is leaving for Riyadh early Monday morning to join the 'political consultation' at the foreign minister level with Saudi Arabia. Asked about this, he said, Saudi Arabia is our big development partner. About 30 lakh Bangladeshis live there and send remittances to the country. We have Saudi cooperation on various issues including green energy, solar power and port management. We will tell them to invest in industry.

Besides, since the Saudis keep money in banks of different countries, we can offer them to keep money in the offshore accounts of our country's banks, the foreign minister said, noting that they will get profit as per rules and they can do transactions in their currency from that account. We would like to highlight that we have opened the window of offshore account facility for foreign individuals, institutions, and expatriate Bangladeshis.