WHILE the country’s economy is trapped and the export-import business stumbles due to political uncertainty, surprisingly, the imports of capital machinery and food grains increased by 28.54 percent and 148.63 percent respectively in the first half (HI) of the current financial, according to a national daily, compared with the corresponding period of the FY14. Bangladesh Bank and experts opined that there was no logical cause of increase in capital machinery imports in the first six months of the FY15 as there persists a dull business situation. The huge import payments for industrial machinery raised a suspicion that a chunk of money might have been laundered abroad. On the other hand, the government exported rice to Sri Lanka in December, 2014 for the first time despite an increased trend in imports of the food grain from other sources, particularly India.According to the latest BB data, the imports of capital machinery and rice increased to $1.47 billion and $248.61 million respectively in July-December of the FY15 from $1.14 billion and $99.99 million in the same period of the FY14. Though, industrial term loans had not increased much in the period meaning that the industrial units had not expanded in line with the import of robust amounts of capital machinery. Thus by the simple logic, it indicates money laundering might have occurred behind such activities. Economists have called the Central Bank and National Board of Revenue to start investigations to detect if there were over-invoicing through the import process. Former Advisor to the interim government AB Mirza Azizul Islam opined that there was no justified reason for the rise in the machinery import due to a dull business situation amid political uncertainty. The BB data showed that the country’s overall imports increased by 10.08 percent in July-December of the FY15 compared with that in the same period a financial year ago. The overall settlement of letters of credit, or generally known as actual imports, stood at $19.59 billion in July-December of the FY15 against that of $17.79 billion in the same period of the FY14. The import of industrial raw materials has increased by 6.34 percent at $7.62 billion in July-December of the FY15 against $7.17 billion in the same period of the FY14. LC openings, generally known as import orders, in July-December of the FY15 also posted a growth of 13.16 per cent compared with that in the same period of the FY14. Data showed that the country’s import orders had maintained a negative growth in December compared with that of previous November due to the recent spate of political violence. In such a back ground, the increase in import volumes of capital machinery has raised doubts in conscious minds.Past experience says that when the country faces political turmoil ruling party men usually feud to launder money under the cover of import invoicing and the present trend is no different . The Central Bank should initiate investigation neutrally aiming to catch the money launders as it is believed that the report of over-invoicing is just the tip of the iceberg.
