Capital flight has become a serious concern for Bangladesh’s economy. Silently but enormously, money is being smuggled out to safe destinations worldwide. According to a news report published in a national daily on Sunday, the total amount of money swindled off the country by a section of dishonest businessmen, politically influential leaders and corrupt government officials would be $12-15 billion a year.
Economists and experts at a dialogue in the capital on Saturday said that absence of good governance, lack of political will and individual investment facility, fear of political instability, complex bureaucracy of state institutions and widespread corruption are root causes behind the huge sums of money laundering every year. If the rule of law and good economic governance is ensured in the country, the tendency of money laundering will decrease. Many people, mostly the politically influential, are smuggling a lot of money to Canada’s Begum Para and Malaysia’s second home programme. The actual figure of smuggled money is likely higher than what various global agencies, including the Global Financial Integrity (GFI), put. The GFI report also mentioned that approximately Tk 5 lakh crore was laundered out of Bangladesh last year. The laundering is on one hand causing the revenue collection to go down and on the other hampering allocations for important sectors like social security, education and health.
As reported, our government is unable to spend even 7-8 per cent of our GDP on social security, education and health. Bangladesh lags far behind other developing countries in terms of Tax GDP. If the smuggling of capital were prevented, the allocation for the poor would increase. Foreigners working in Bangladesh are smuggling a large part of their income, which is $2 billion a year. Although there is no rule for Bangladeshi workers to pay for visas to go abroad, more than $2 billion is being smuggled into the sector every year.
If the Anti-corruption Commission, Bangladesh Bank, Attorney General’s Office and other government agencies take concerted efforts, it is possible to prevent money laundering and bring back the siphoned off sums. But now the big question is do the authorities really want to curb money laundering? The government people are involved in only big laundering. That is why change is resisted with all the might.
