Special Correspondent :
The government has offered a one-time amnesty on the undeclared gold held by businesses and individuals.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) issued a circular in this regard on Tuesday asking the possessors of undeclared precious metals to announce their stocks by June 30 to avail the amnesty scheme.
The NBR circular cited that businesses and individuals will become compliant after paying tax of Tk 1,000 per bhori (equivalent to 11.5 gram) gold, Tk 6,000 tax on per carat cut and polished diamond and Tk 50 tax on per carat silver.
Gold traders have been asked to submit their TIN (tax identification numbers) while announcing their undeclared stocks of precious metals, including gold.
The amnesty scheme will remain valid until June this year, according to the NBR’s circular, signed by its Chairman Md. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan.
The revenue board came up with the latest move to bring the country’s gold trade under legal framework as well as discourage illegal import of the precious metal.
According to a TIB study, the country’s annual demand for gold is around is 18-36 tonnes and the major share of which came through smuggling.
“The government has announced the one-time amnesty scheme considering the prevailing situation of the country’s gold trade. Businessmen and individuals have been asked to take the opportunity after paying the tax, fixed on precious metals, within the aforesaid time- frame,” a NBR official told The New Nation on Wednesday, on condition on anonymity. “In case of failure, they will face penalty in line with law,” he added.
The NBR official further said that the government is depriving huge amount of tax from the gold sector every year due smuggling of gold.
“About 80 per cent of the country’s gold demand is met through entry of illegal gold. The rest of the demand for gold is met with the recycled gold and imports under the baggage rules,” he noted.
The government has already announced gold policy in order to bring the country’s gold trade under the legal framework and make import and export of the precious metal easy and stop its smuggling.
About 2.0 tonnes of gold were seized between 2012 and 2017 by the by Custom Intelligence Department.
Most of the gold was seized from the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka as Bangladesh had been treated as a route of gold smugglers against the backdrop of a huge demand for the precious metal in neighbouring India. Big hauls of the precious metal in regular intervals at the airport indicate that gold is often smuggled into the country.
“The unabated smuggling of gold causes huge revenue loss for the government and creates scope for money laundering,” said the NBR official.
