NATIONAL Board of Revenue, Bangladesh (NBR) asks banks to ensure full information in import documents to tackle issues like Tax Evasion and Money Laundering. Import consignments with incomplete information in the LC documents will face 100 per cent physical inspection and Customs Commissioners will have the authority to summon the LC issuing bank officials to be present during the inspection.
Tax evasion is an illegal practice where a person, organization or corporation intentionally avoids paying his true tax liability. Money laundering is the process of transforming the profits of crime and corruption into ostensibly “legitimate” assets. Both these crimes are dealt seriously all over the world as it affects the country’s economy. The Customs Wing of the NBR on Wednesday issued a set of instructions for the banks to ensure scrutiny of the import documents and requested the Bangladesh Bank governor to inform the banks about the NBR decisions. They also mentioned that complying with the responsive declaration procedures will also prevent misdeclaration, under invoicing and over invoicing, by importers.
In many cases, import documents including LCA (Letter of Credit Authorization) and LCs (Letter of Credits) are found incomplete with lack of required information like reasonable price, detailed description, and HS code, generic and commercial name of imported goods. Currently, banks are not precisely following the provisions of Import Policy Order for 2015-2018, Customs Act-1969 and other laws in authorising import invoice, LC authorization form and LC documents that cause duty evasion and money laundering. In many LC documents, Customs Officials find the prices of finished goods shown are lower than the prices of raw materials of those goods. Such irregularities can cause complexities in determining the prices of imported goods for customs valuation and completing the clearance procedures. According to the NBR instructions, under the responsive declaration, banks will have to authorise the import invoice after crosschecking the details of products like generic name, commercial name, brand name, chemical name, HS code, model number art number and part number of import items.
Officials of the NBR asked Bangladesh Bank to monitor whether the banks are authorising the LCA form, invoice and packing list and other documents as well as issuing LCs in line with the responsive declaration procedures. Banks are requested to follow the NBR rules and regulations in mentioning the reasonable price of import goods in the LCs. For goods under sensitive list of the NBR, both the price of weight-based unit and price of piece must be mentioned in the invoice.
We applaud the decision made by NBR. Also we hope that they will be able to implement it without any havoc.
Tax evasion is an illegal practice where a person, organization or corporation intentionally avoids paying his true tax liability. Money laundering is the process of transforming the profits of crime and corruption into ostensibly “legitimate” assets. Both these crimes are dealt seriously all over the world as it affects the country’s economy. The Customs Wing of the NBR on Wednesday issued a set of instructions for the banks to ensure scrutiny of the import documents and requested the Bangladesh Bank governor to inform the banks about the NBR decisions. They also mentioned that complying with the responsive declaration procedures will also prevent misdeclaration, under invoicing and over invoicing, by importers.
In many cases, import documents including LCA (Letter of Credit Authorization) and LCs (Letter of Credits) are found incomplete with lack of required information like reasonable price, detailed description, and HS code, generic and commercial name of imported goods. Currently, banks are not precisely following the provisions of Import Policy Order for 2015-2018, Customs Act-1969 and other laws in authorising import invoice, LC authorization form and LC documents that cause duty evasion and money laundering. In many LC documents, Customs Officials find the prices of finished goods shown are lower than the prices of raw materials of those goods. Such irregularities can cause complexities in determining the prices of imported goods for customs valuation and completing the clearance procedures. According to the NBR instructions, under the responsive declaration, banks will have to authorise the import invoice after crosschecking the details of products like generic name, commercial name, brand name, chemical name, HS code, model number art number and part number of import items.
Officials of the NBR asked Bangladesh Bank to monitor whether the banks are authorising the LCA form, invoice and packing list and other documents as well as issuing LCs in line with the responsive declaration procedures. Banks are requested to follow the NBR rules and regulations in mentioning the reasonable price of import goods in the LCs. For goods under sensitive list of the NBR, both the price of weight-based unit and price of piece must be mentioned in the invoice.
We applaud the decision made by NBR. Also we hope that they will be able to implement it without any havoc.
