To ensure a sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 fallouts, experts have called upon the Government to quickly disburse the stimulus funds for the cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises (CMSMEs).
As per reports, they made this call while taking part in a webinar titled ‘Impact of Covid-19 on CMSMEs and Understanding their Recovery: Evidence from BSCIC Industrial Estates’, recently.
Taking part in this webinar as the chief guest, jointly organised by the PRISM Programme and the Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF), Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun underlined the CMSMEs were the worst affected by the pandemic even though the Government had announced a Taka 20,000 crore stimulus package for the sector while another Taka 1,500 crore stimulus package was announced for entrepreneurs in rural areas, of which, Taka 300 crore was allocated for SME Foundation, which in turn, disbursed Taka 100 crore from the fund in the outgoing fiscal year, he added even as the Chairperson of Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD), Abul Kashem Khan, on his part stressed on the need to address the barriers that prevent the CMSMEs from availing stimulus funds.
Meanwhile, President of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry Rizwan Rahman proposed the withdrawal of advance income tax as well as the tax levied on online sales in order to boost the growth of e-commerce and digitalisation of the CMSMEs while Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pran-RFL Group, Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, said if micro and small entrepreneurs were protected from the coronavirus fallouts through financing, they could facilitate Bangladesh’s full economic recovery.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
