The finance ministry is unlikely to entertain a demand for Tk 10 crore by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry for an under-construction multi-storey building of the organisation in the Dhaka city. A senior finance ministry official said it was not known whether the ministry could entertain the demand made by the FBCCI in the revised budget. There is no allocation for the purpose in the current budget, he said. The FBCCI, the country’s apex chamber body, demanded the fund in an appeal to the commerce ministry for the under-construction building in the city’s Hatkhola area, close to the commercial district Motijheel. Officials said the commerce ministry had lobbied for the FBCCI as the ministry requested the finance ministry to arrange the fund from the block allocation. The commerce ministry forwarded the appeal to the finance ministry last week. Finance ministry officials said the FBCCI was given Tk 10 crore in the last fiscal year for the same purpose. Some of the finance ministry officials raised questions when the FBCCI was allotted with the fund in the last fiscal year. The FBCCI, however, obtained the fund because of the blessings of the present political regime, they said. They said the FBCCI’s fresh demand was not logical as the budgetary allocation should not be given repeatedly to a body which is rich itself. In 2012, the FBCCI demanded Tk 40 crore from the public coffer to construct the multi-storey building in the capital. AK Azad, who was the FBCCI president then, refused to explain why they sought fund from the government when they could easily take loan from banks for the purpose. Finance ministry officials said the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association illegally constructed a building with the blessings of successive governments on a water body in the city. Later, the organisation led by the then president Annisul Huq sold out most parts of the BGMEA building to commercial clients, they said. FBCCI leaders said they had no intention to sell any part of the proposed building to be built on some 10 kathas of land. They said the existing FBCCI office at Motijheel could not solve the accommodation problem the organisation has long been facing. The FBCCI laid the foundation stone of the proposed building on May 6, 2012 with finance minister AMA Muhith attending the function. FBCCI officials assessed that the construction cost of the building would be Tk 20 crore-Tk 25 crore.
