A cache of government taxes amounting to Tk 18.45 billion is trapped in the frozen bank accounts of Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited (DMCSL) as the revenue authority faces legal complexities in realising the levied money from the troubled company.
Official sources said the tax office under the National Board of Revenue (NBR) raised the tax demand recently by completing assessment of the company's tax file for six tax years since 2006-07 till 2012-13.
All these bank accounts of the upstart company that eventually went bust under the weight of wrongs have been frozen by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Md Rustom Ali Mollah, Commissioner of the Income Tax Zone -4, in a letter on August 27 sought intervention of the NBR chairman in realising the outstanding taxes through negotiation with the anti-graft body.
Talking on the matter, a senior tax official said there is a large amount of deposits lying in the frozen bank accounts of the DMCSL in the commercial banks of the country.
Tax authority cannot collect taxes unless the ACC relaxes the impounding of the bank accounts for this purpose, he added.
"Tax authority is responsible to collect internal revenue for the government. It is empowered to confiscate property, freeze bank account of nay taxpayers to realize due taxes," he said.
In the letter, the tax commissioner said the taxmen had completed tax assessment of the DMCSL, having Taxpayers Identification Number (TIN) 558-400-0065, for six consecutive tax years.
"Entire tax demand from the company is undisputed as there is no appeal against the tax authorities' claim worth Tk 18.45 billion from the company," the letter reads.
Taxmen cannot realise taxes from the deposits of the companies due to the bar put by the ACC, it added.
In the letter, the tax commissioner urged the high-ups of the NBR to resolve the issue through discussion with the ACC. Talking to the FE Thursday, ACC commissioner Dr Nasiruddin Ahmed said the anti-graft agency had submitted charge sheets to the court after completion of investigation into DMCSL and Destiny Tree Plantation Limited affairs.
"It will be decided by the court whether tax can be realised from the accounts or not. The issue is not under ACC now as we have submitted the charge sheets on the companies," he added.
The government launched investigation against the Destiny after an investigation by Bangladesh Bank (BB) on financial irregularities by the group in 2012.
According to a Bangladesh Bank (BB) report, the Destiny Group laundered around Tk 51.13 billion from 2002 to 2006 through 282 accounts held by its three sister concerns-Destiny 2000 Limited, Destiny Tree Plantation Limited, and Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited (DMCSL).
Destiny Group has 37 sister concerns. Of the companies, DMCSL is one of the major concerns of the group that had been meteorically rising amid brouhaha until destiny frowned upon it.
Probe bodies of the ACC and the NBR also found "illegal banking" activities by Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd.
Officials said the government has taken step to scrutinise the activities of the group following allegations about its business activities being operated like those of banks.
The anti-graft body has found a total of 722 bank accounts with different banks under the names of 37 companies of Destiny Group that boasted 4.7 million clients.
The official said all companies of the Destiny Group opened more than one account with different banks, and in most of the cases, they did not maintain any receipt of financial transactions.
On this matter, the BB report said that Destiny 2000 started operating bank accounts in 2000, DMCSL in 2005 and Destiny Tree Plantation in 2006.
The anti-graft watchdog filed the cases on detecting financial irregularities in the operations of DMCSL and Destiny Tree Plantation Ltd project.
