A bill titled “Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation Bill, 2020” was placed in the parliament today, aimed at offloading 49 per cent share of the organisation in the share market.

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader placed the bill in the House which was sent to the parliamentary standing committee on the respective ministry for further scrutiny.

The parliamentary standing committee was asked to submit its report to the House within 14 working days.

In the bill, a new provision has been incorporated among the functions of the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) that it will render transport services during emergency situations like hartal (strike), blockade, transport strike, emergency condition, national disaster, Biswa Ijtema, freedom fighters’ rally and in the case of emergency need of the state.

According to the proposed law, the government will own 51 per cent shares of the corporation while the rest 49 per cent will be offloaded for the public.

The bill was placed to update an ordinance promulgated in 1961 keeping a provision to offload the shares of BRTC in the capital market.

The authorised capital of the BRTC will be Tk 1,000 crore which will be divided into 100 crore general shares with Tk 10 base price.

The authorised capital of the corporation under the existing law is only Tk 6 crore.

The paid-up capital of the corporation is Tk 3 crore in the existing law. Its amount has not been fixed in the proposed law as the BRTC annual general meeting or special general meeting will fix the amount of the paid-up capital but it cannot exceed the amount of the authorised capital.

There will be a 23-member board of directors of the corporation instead of the existing 11-member one.