A bill has been tabled in Parliament to increase the authorised and paid-up capital of Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation by amending the 1972 Act, bdnews24.com reports.
State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Md Mahbub Ali tabled the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 on Monday.
The bill was later sent to the parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism for an examination. The committee was asked to submit a report to the parliament within a month.
The draft law proposes increasing the authorised capital from Tk 150 million to Tk 10 billion and the paid-up capital from Tk 500,000 to Tk 4 billion.
The definition of a tourist has been changed in the draft law. According to the existing law, a person spending more than 24 hours but less than six months away from home for travel or leisure purposes is considered a tourist. The time has been extended to one year in the draft law. However, if the person is away for work, he or she will not be labelled as a tourist.
Jatiya Party senior MP Fakhrul Imam objected to the bill in parliament saying that the existing law has a minimum time limit, which is absent in the draft law. He also raised objections on a few other issues.
The bill states that the tourism corporation will be able to operate and manage duty-free shops.
The existing law stipulates that the board of a corporation may have a maximum of four members. The number has been increased to 11 in the draft law. The chairman of the board will now be the secretary of the ministry.
According to the government, the law is being amended to reduce unemployment, create new jobs, increase income and expand the scope of tourism corporations through the development of the tourism industry in Bangladesh.
The cabinet secretary said the council was being redesigned to facilitate the implementation of the multi-dimensional work of the tourism corporation. The bill authorises the creation of regulations to govern tourism corporations.