DHAKA: The BRTC will offload shares in the capital market as the cabinet yesterday approved the draft of “The Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation Act, 2019” with the provision.

The approval came from a regular cabinet meeting held in the Secretariat here with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

“The cabinet today gave final nod to the draft of “The Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation Act, 2019″ updating the regulation of 1961 keeping a provision of offloading shares in the market,” Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told journalists at the Secretariat.

Shafiul said the authorized capital of the corporation under the existing law is only Taka 6 crore, but in the proposed law, it has been fixed at Taka 1,000 crore divided into some 100 crore shares, each with a face value of Taka 10.

“The government will own 51 percent shares while 49 percent share will be offloaded for the general public,” he said.

The paid up capital was not fixed in the proposed law, it will be fixed by a general meeting or a special general meeting of the corporation while the paid up capital wouldn’t exceed the authorized capital, he informed.

The draft law provides for a 24-member board of directors — 13 from the government, eight non-government members from eight divisions of which three will be women and three from the shareholders, he said.

The number of directors is only 11 in the existing law, he said, adding that a ‘member secretary’ for the board has been proposed in the new law.

Shafiul added: “A provision has been incorporated in the proposed law for
conducting the BRTC services to face any special situation such as hartal,
strike, transport strike, emergency, natural calamities, special state
urgency, Biswa Ijtema and freedom fighters’ assembly.”

“The cabinet today also gave final nod to the draft of ‘The Bangladesh
Road Transport Corporation Act, 2019’ updating the regulation of 1961 keeping
a provision of offloading shares in the market,” he said.

The Cabinet Secretary said that the authorized capital of the corporation
under the existing law is only Taka six crore, but in the proposed law, it
has been fixed at Taka 1,000 crore divided into some 100 crore shares, each
with a face value of Taka 10.

“The government will own 51 percent shares while 49 percent share will be
offloaded for the general public,” he said.

The cabinet also approved the draft of a law that will pave the way for
depositing the idle money to the public exchequer as Taka 2,12,100 crore of
68 organisations remained unused till May this year.

“The cabinet has approved the draft of the law for paving the way to help
deposit the idle money to the public exchequer as the money is not now being
invested for good purposes. The money has now been kept idle with various
banks as FDR,” Mohammad Shafiul Alam told a news briefing at the Secretariat.

He went on saying that the money will be used to carry out development
works.

According to the information updated till May 2019, as many as Taka
2,12,100 crore of 68 autonomous, semi-autonomous, government statuary
authorities, public non-financial corporation and self-governing
organisations are kept idle, he informed.

The cabinet approved the proposal for ratification of the “Treaty on the
Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons” which will be adopted during the 74th Session
of the UN General Assembly.

A proposal was also approved in the cabinet meeting relating to join “The
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organised Crime” to stop human trafficking and ensuring
punishment to this end.

Besides, the Cabinet approved the draft of the agreement on labour
cooperation between the government of Seychelles and the government of
Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, the cabinet was apprised the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina to the United Kingdom from July 19 to August 7.

It was also apprised the visit of the Bangladesh delegation led by
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi to Czeck Republic and Slovenia for signing the
agreement on bilateral trade and economic cooperation with Czeck Republic on
May 21, 2019 and to attend “The Second Celebration of the World Bee Day” on
May 18 to May 20 in 2019.