Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his government would take necessary steps for the approval of much-talked-about Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with Bangladesh yesterday .
He added that the LBA bill would be placed in the coming session of Rajya Sabha, the upper House, and the Lok Sabha, the lower House of India.
Singh made the assurance while visiting Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed at his official residence in New Delhi, according a message received from the commerce ministry here.
The deal was signed between then prime minister of Bangladesh, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and his Indian counterpart Indira Gandhi in 1974.
Meanwhile, Dhaka and New Delhi agreed to remove all tariff and non-tariff barriers to enhance intra-trade in the Saarc countries.
Later, Tofail met his Indian counterpart Anand Sharma and discussed various bilateral issues. The two sides discussed ways of further improving trade relations between the two countries in the bilateral as well as the Saarc framework.
In November 2011, India granted duty and quota free access to all but 25 tariff lines to Bangladesh.
Since then, Bangladesh’s exports to India have registered a 13.5% growth in the 2012-13 fiscal year. The total volume of bilateral trade stands at $5.34bn.
Earlier, a Bangladesh delegation led by Tofail attended the fifth edition of the Saarc Business Leaders Conclave (SBLC) that began on Friday.
Additional Secretary Murtozaa Reza Chowdhury and business leaders accompanied the commerce minister. During the visit, Tofail also met with Indian President Pranab Mukherjee.
