Massive Property Tax and Rent Hike at Your Doorstep!

Mad already from stock market crash? But how about an explosion of housing?

February Fireworks over Dhaka's Super Hot Real Estate Skyline!!
In the Eve of World Cup Cricket, Feb 2011

Bangladesh Government has planned a massive new property tax beginning July 2012. According to reports: any person having more than one house or a flat in metropolitan areas will have to pay the property tax.  Rate? It has not been officially disclosed yet but, the Daily Star reports:

“.. said an NBR high official adding that the property tax will be two to three percent of the value of a taxable property.”

If this is even close- this will create an unprecedented frenzy in the superhot real-estate market of Bangladesh, which has experienced double digit yearly increase in property valuation for many consecutive years.

A flat owner whose, flat has a valuation of TK 50 Lac (typical lower range in Dhaka) will have to pay TK 1-1.5 Lac yearly in property tax. If the flat is valued at 4 Crore (typical upscale), he will pay Tk 8-12 Lacs per year.(continued in next page...)

Why The Forbidden Love Story Meherjaan Should Be Banned!

(RealTime Bangladesh Blog Report, February 25, 2011)

We blogged some time ago about Nirjhor’s Namuna held at esteemed Bangladesh Film Censor Board (BFCB).  Now we have another runaway film- Rubaiyat Hossain’s “Meherjaan. The problem is BFCB failed to ban it, despite its anti-national narrative! Our Bengali tribe is thankful to film’s distributor Mr. Habibur Rahman Khan (Prothom Alo, January, 29, 2011) - who despite his financial sacrifice finally could stop this contamination of our sacred history by romantic imagination (or actually it is not- it based on a Boston ghost story... read on)!

Session House where British General Burgoyne  and Her American Lover Lucy's Ghosts still roam

The film "Meherjaan" imagines a politically forbidden love affair between a Pakistani soldier and a sexy Bangladeshi girl (Read the synopsis here) in 1971 Liberation War- and surely bruises our most sensitive nerves!

 

Dynastic Democracy, Gamal Mubarak, Saif Gaddafi and The Two Princes of Bangladesh

(Real Time Bangladesh Blog Report, March 2011)

In pictures (Left/Top) Mr. Tareq imitates his father's hand waiving (in the background).  (Right/Below) Mr. Sajeeb Wazed visits from US for a vacation and the student wing of mother's party (BCL) organizes a reception parodying the 1972 return of his grand father Mujib from a Pakistani jail after the independence of 1971.

Egyptian revolution is now in the intermission, Libya raging- meanwhile it is a time to look into the mirror- in our home- in this desert light. Are we different from Egypt or there are some ominous similarities?

100 Lashes of Death for Hena and to the Conscience of Bangladesh: Many Thousands Henas are There..

 Internet Photo of Hena (now dead) and her griefing Mother

(RealTimeBangladesh Blog, February 2011)

The Daily Star story on Hena- latest victim of village (un) justice in Bangladesh has been making its round in News/Blogsphere after news-setter website DrugeReport picked it up. The Daily Star reported:

According to witnesses, Hena was whipped at least 50 times a day after she was raped allegedly by her 40-year-old cousin Mahbub and physically tortured by Mahbub's wife and in-laws on January 23. The next day, Imam of local mosque Saifullah passed a fatwa for whipping the girl 101 times and Mahbub 200 times. He also fined Mahbub Tk 50,000.

The fatwa was given in a closed-door meeting, arranged by the family of Mahbub's wife Shilpi in collusion with Idris Sheikh, member of Chamta union parishad. At one stage of the lashing, Hena collapsed to the ground, witnesses add. Still, Idris and some others did not allow Hena's family to take her to hospital until January 25, when her condition worsened.

AP cites the local police officer Mr. Rahman giving further details:

" the 40-year-old man with whom Hena was allegedly involved was also sentenced to 100 lashes. But the man fled, escaping the punishment, he said. "We are hunting for the man".

Note this is a very special country- in 2011 it will mark the two decades of Women Power- since 1991 all the prime-ministers in Bangladesh has been women!  Possibly unique in the world. Also a unique contrast!