Staff Reporter :
A study released yesterday by Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) said huge amount of money laundering is taking place from the country mainly under the cover of falsely reported imports and exports.
In most cases importers use fake names and faulty address and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) recently ended in arresting a farmer from a village while investigating a case of money laundering under false declaration of import consignment.
Prof Ahsan Habib who was involved in the BIBM study said it is difficult to figure out the exact amount that Bangladesh is losing every year through money laundering.
This is not similarly possible in case of other countries except high
guess work from strong indicators surrounding transfer of hedge money by formal and informal chanels and by way of export-imports.
He said money laundering is draining vital resources from one country to another by powerful people but no one can give a credible figure. It can be surely felt, but openly can’t be figured out.
Money laundering is mainly taking place by over payment of import bills and lower receipt of export earnings manipulating the export- import invoices. It is also taking place evading payment of right amount of import duty by falsely reporting the import items involving very low cost.
One import high value products but show it as poultry feed or low cost industrial raw materials and equipment. Bank and customs officials and NBR employees are working jointly in many cases as a group to facilitate the transfer of huge money under faulty trade cover.
In such cases BIBM researchers found customs officials often don’t open the
containers for physical verification of the imported goods with import declarations. Bank officials provide cover while importers calibrate their steps as the situation demands.
Goods worth thousand crore taka thus get clearance as import of few crore taka and this is how most money laundering from Bangladesh is taking place. Prof Ahsan Hahib referring to an example said the ACC officials investigating a falsely declared import consignment recent ended in arresting a farmer from a village at the end.
The consignment has no credible name of and the importer’s identity and address were not traceable either. People socially and politically powerful are thus using fake cover and clearing huge import consignment to transfer big money abroad.
They are so powerful that they are demanding now settlement of trade bill directly between the importer and exporter without involving banks and customs.
He warned the government not to succumb to such pressure for open account
that will allow importers and exporters to settle their payment directly avoiding involvement of banks and NBR as regulatory bodies.
This will allow money laundering without any accountability, Prof Habib said adding nobody will be able to trace money laundering if it comes to happen.
