NEWS reports in most national dailies on Thursday made the shocking disclosure that Bangladesh lost over $ 9.66 billion dollar in 2013 through illegal capital flight which is 33.78 higher from the previous 2012. It is equivalent to six percent of the GDP at a time when the nation’s GDP is also growing at around six percent to mean that in fact no net wealth is developing in the country and whatever is developing is being illegally moved out of the country. The one-year capital outflow in local currency stands at more than Tk 76,361 crore and it accounts for the combined annual development budget for education, health, industries and infrastructure projects. Estimate shows illegal capital flight rose by almost 79 percent in only three years to raise question as to why our government is keeping the eyes shut and don’t see the plight when others can see it.
The disclosure by the Global Financial Integrity Report said the money that Bangladesh lost in 2013 was equivalent to one-thirds of export earnings and three times the size of average foreign aid Bangladesh annually received in recent times. In the new rating Bangladesh’s position has degraded to 26 from 51 in a previous list of 149 countries. The analysis has rightly blamed political violence and uncertainty that the country saw through 2013 for the surge in capital flight, particularly in the run-up to the January 5 election. Meanwhile, total capital flight from 2004 to 2014 stood at more than $ 58 billion to suggest that the country was ruthlessly exploited by swindlers including businessmen, politicians to move out capital to global business centers. In most cases they used misleading trade bills and the purpose was mainly to settle their families and set up business abroad with the illegal money ruling party men have amassed. In absence of transparency; multinational companies illegally transferring money.
We know Bangladesh is already a member of Financial Action Task Force but its focus so far remained to sealing militants funding while illegal capital flight continued unabated. It is an open secret that intelligence agencies knew of such massive capital flights and also often alerted the government policy makers but as things stood out they did not plug the holes and statistics showed Bangladesh people lost the most while swindlers and bank grabbers moved out so much money which could easily push the country’s growth rate to double digit.
Bangladesh is now rather facing severe economic stagnation and one of the reasons may be that investment in the economy has dried out because of risk from political uncertainty and investors are moving their money out. We are afraid the economy will be ruined if swindlers continue to take money out.
