Honest Living + Buying Nice Cars in Dhaka

shahedC · Post by **shahedC** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 8:48 pm

Hi all,

When I was 18, I left Bangladesh for higher education, and it's been 12 years now. While in Dhaka, we did not own our own home, neither did we own our own car.

Having lived abroad all these years, I see that it is possible to own multiple homes and cars, but with lots of hard work and lots of debt. (Welcome to America! :) )

I have been checking out all the nice cars on this website, and I'm glad to see that so many people have been buying so many nice cars these days.

I have been reading all the "latest news" about the crooked politicians and their seized vehicles, and that got me thinking: how are people in Dhaka able to afford these cars at these high prices, where everything is double or triple the original price?

Is it possible to make an honest living in Bangladesh, and still afford the luxuries in life?

~shahedc
.

Post by **arnab** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 3:52 pm

it depends on your definition of a nice car, i would feel that a good toyota corolla is a nice car for dhaka, and yes some of my friends are working and paying the bank for the loan for the car. now if you are talking about exotics then it would not be possible to get them by working for someone, you have to have some other mode of income (family inheritance/business)

In BD to get a car with a bigger engine you would require special permission which only the MP's get, they are not allowed to sell those permits to anyone, its for their use, but they sell to make money off it. This way you also save on some taxes I am not sure. Technically even if you have the money earned in the proper way the number of cars youc an buy are limited. The are business people who can buy the cars and pay the taxes as well, but how they procure the cars are not in the right manner.

shahedC · Post by **shahedC** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 12:28 am

ok, let me try to rephrase..

By "nice car", I was referring to luxury cars like BMW, Mercedes, Lexus and Infiniti.. and the occasional exotics, such as a Ferrari or a high-powered luxury car, such as the SL65 AMG.

If it's not possible to get a loan for such cars in Dhaka, I guess someone is paying cash for the cars, and not just 100% of the price, but rather, 2 to 3 times the original price.

But of course, there are many legitimate businessmen in Dhaka with very successful business, so I would think that they would be able to afford at least 1 nice car.

But do they have to resort to illegal practices to be able to live that lifestyle, or has the economy improved enough to allow the honest businessmen to buy such things?

~shahedc
.

Post by **GTI VR6** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 10:47 pm

There are still quite a few legitimate businessmen with nice cars in Dhaka....

Need2Speed · Post by **Need2Speed** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 12:57 pm

It's definitely possible to be honest and still buy nice cars here. Why not?

khundkar · Post by **khundkar** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 12:54 am

Need2Speed wrote:It's definitely possible to be honest and still buy nice cars here. Why not?

Alright. Agreed. But the question of the day is that how many of the nice cars in Bangladesh is legit? Do we have members here who drive legit cars? Do we know people who drive these legit cars? Or do we turn the other way and just ignore the procurement of the funds for these luxury vehicles?

I will be the first to admit that I know people who drive nice cars, and have gotten them through illegal ways. I don't respect them for driving the nice car, I look down upon them for getting it in an illegal manner. The question is, would you do the same? if your friends father got a BMW m5 in an illegal manner, and you know about it, would you call him corrupt? And as I say "you" I don't mean just "you", i am asking all of the members here this question.

I ask my father how much he makes and how he got the things he got, as he asks me the same question. Do you ask or just keep quiet and enjoy the nice pajero/celica/bmw/benz... ?

Last but not least, what are these businesses that are legitimate, so that we can praise them and do honest business with them as well.

Post by **GTI VR6** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:27 pm

as I said before, there are still many legit business owners and businesses here and all these owners can afford have nice exotics that they have bought in the past and are still buying now. i have worked in a non-banking financial institution for a year and I have come across a lot of business owners who have done well in the past, are doing well now and will do even better in the coming future. these businesses are legit. not everyone is bad. a lot are are but not everyone.

i hope i cleared some of your confusion.

shahedC · Post by **shahedC** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:44 am

khundkar wrote: I will be the first to admit that I know people who drive nice cars, and have gotten them through illegal ways. ...

This was the kind of response I was waiting for.. we know they are there. But does everyone always look the other way? I'm sure there are many questionable businessmen on this Forum, but I'm not looking for a confession here. :)

khundkar wrote: Last but not least, what are these businesses that are legitimate, so that we can praise them and do honest business with them as well.

Good point... we should also celebrate the hard-working businessmen who have succeeded against all odds! Let's hear your stories!

GTI VR6 wrote:as I said before, there are still many legit business owners and businesses here and all these owners can afford have nice exotics that they have bought in the past and are still buying now....
i hope i cleared some of your confusion.

Thanks for the the explanations... I wasn't confused, just merely curious, and looking to see what others had to say about it..

~shahedc
.

zoheb · Post by **zoheb** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 9:46 am

Yes, it is possible to make an honest living in Bangladesh, and still afford the luxuries in life.......I know two families, who have honest businesses, and their cars(Bimmer, Benz, Lexus) were bought in the right legal ways. These ppl have been doing good business for 20-30 years now. The bottom line is, ppl who are "notun boroloks", are basically doing everything the illegal ways, but there are some honest businessmen in BD, who've been doing good business for ages, and they've been known as rich and high class families for a long time now, and making hard earned money, the honest way.

I agree that the number/percentage of these honest businessmen are very little in our country, but u cannot just generalize everyone by the deeds of the corrupted ppl, which is the majority in our country.

Need2Speed · Post by **Need2Speed** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:06 pm

well said. the corrupt people who are unfortunately the majority are making all honest people look bad. if u bought your luxury car in a legal way you shouldn't have to be ashamed about it.

snkpkp · Post by **snkpkp** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 3:58 pm

The topic is far more complex than you think. Yes it is a fact that people buy cars with their illegal means in Bangladesh. They have always had in the past, and not just in Bangladesh. You see gangsters rolling in SL65's who pay no tax returns and i dont even think the IRS even has their real names. Our country is going through a developing stage right now and is at a crucial junction of passing through what is black and moving towards the white, which makes us more in the GREY area. So even LEGIT businessmen who pay their corporate taxes, personal taxes have some muds in their hands. But this does not make them dishonest. So these things will always exist in a society like ours ...lets us just hope we move up....hope will keep us moving upwards----

I can say one thing for sure, I know more legit owners of luxury vehicle who contributes a well amount of money to the government in terms of corporate tax, personal income tax and other welfare activities and I am sure they will drive and buy luxury vehicles for more days to come......

shehab1984 · Post by **shehab1984** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:49 pm

Just to add one more point, not only do businessmen in Dhaka buy exotic cars and drive them around, there are many expatriates (tax paying, may I add) who have lived abroad and worked hard all their lives, and now are settling in Dhaka and are driving exotics as well! They import the cars into Dhaka, paying the full taxes or buy the cars from Dhaka with the taxes added on.

snkpkp wrote:The topic is far more complex than you think. Yes it is a fact that people buy cars with their illegal means in Bangladesh. They have always had in the past, and not just in Bangladesh. You see gangsters rolling in SL65's who pay no tax returns and i dont even think the IRS even has their real names. Our country is going through a developing stage right now and is at a crucial junction of passing through what is black and moving towards the white, which makes us more in the GREY area. So even LEGIT businessmen who pay their corporate taxes, personal taxes have some muds in their hands. But this does not make them dishonest. So these things will always exist in a society like ours ...lets us just hope we move up....hope will keep us moving upwards----

I can say one thing for sure, I know more legit owners of luxury vehicle who contributes a well amount of money to the government in terms of corporate tax, personal income tax and other welfare activities and I am sure they will drive and buy luxury vehicles for more days to come......

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