Asiatic’s bank accounts frozen over tax evasion

The Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has frozen all bank accounts of Asiatic Marketing Communications Ltd (Asiatic MCL) on tax-evasion charges.

CIC officials said it has recently instructed all commercial banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFI) to suspend account transactions of the company.

They said the tax intelligence team will investigate the allegations to see whether the Asiatic group has any income other than the amount shown in their tax files.

The CIC has also started identifying the individuals having connections and transactions with the Asiatic. People involved in managing Asiatic's assets are under suspicion.

A spokesperson of Asiatic said, "We are yet to receive any official letter from the NBR. We are not aware of any allegations against us. Asiatic is a very clean and compliant group and our business growth is based on the hard work of people, creativity and ethics. We will be able to prove ourselves innocent should there is proper investigation and fair delivery of justice."

The Asiatic MCL is the oldest and largest communication agency in Bangladesh. It is the flagship company of Asiatic 3Sixty, a comprehensive communication group. The company's ownership and key management include Sara Zaker (Chairperson) and Iresh Zaker (Managing Director).

doulotakter11@gmail.com