The new government is likely to allow legalisation of the undisclosed money that lies idle, stashed into cellars presumably in large amounts, reports UNB.
Sources in the Ministry of Finance and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) said the government was thinking about the opportunity as the country had an economic stalemate in the last two years and the amount of such idle money piled up, for fear of getting caught under a massive hunt.
On the other hand, the finance ministry and the revenue department are getting pleas from different sectors for a chance to get legalisation of undisclosed money washed white.
At a pre-budget meeting with the NBR Sunday, ruling-party lawmaker and leading businessman of the country Golam Dastagir Gazi demanded scope for unhindered investment of undisclosed money in the industrial sector.
Gazi, also a director of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), argued the opportunity to undisclosed fund would help generate employment and eradicate poverty.
The NBR and the finance ministry sources said that they already had similar pleas from different sectors, including Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and REHAB.
A finance ministry official, preferring anonymity, told the news agency that the government wanted to put the idle money in the formal economy, which would also generate huge employment. "Whether we accept it or not, it is true that for the last two years the economic activities of the country had virtually came to a halt," he said.
A high official of the NBR said that the present government now wants to bring, in the idle money, be it disclosed or undisclosed, in the formal economy.
Narrating the reasons for legalising money, the NBR official said the businessmen and the investors had shied away from doing business and investment in the last two years - when the military-backed interim regime had carried out a massive drive against serious crime and corruption.
"That's why there was a stalemate in the economy. Now the political government wants to infuse dynamism in the economy," he said.
"The matter is just at the preliminary stage. When the government determines the means of allowing legalising of the undisclosed money, then it will fix the way," he said.
The immediate-past caretaker government had given a chance to show undisclosed money earned by legal means from July 1, 2008 for a short period of four months, albeit under a fear factor.
That was the second consecutive time the army-backed non-party caretaker government gave chance to people who did not disclose their legally earned money, and thereby evaded paying the wealth tax.
But the individuals were to pay a penalty at the rate of 7.0 per cent in addition to the regular taxes at the rates applicable for FY 2008-'09.
Earlier, successive governments had offered similar opportunities for the tax defaulters several times, one in the FY 2005-'06. But that was for both the groups of tax-dodgers - those who earned honestly and those who earned dishonestly.
The scheme, however, failed to make any major headway as only Tk 52.13 billion in undisclosed income was disclosed in the period, with the government earning an extra tax of Tk 8.02 billion.
