Final disposal of seized gold and foreign currencies will be jointly scrutinized by the customs and the Bangladesh Bank (BB) in a bid to resolve confusion over proper depository of the smuggled items.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has recently sent letters to the commissioners of Dhaka, Chittagong, Benapole and Sylhet customs houses, instructing them to form inter-departmental committees in their respective customs houses in this regard.
The NBR Customs Wing initiated the move, following recommendations of Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation.
The directorate made the plea to resolve widespread confusion on where the seized gold and currencies are going or whether or not they are disappearing on the way to final disposal.
The volume of gold seizure has increased significantly after the customs intelligence teams intensified their vigilance recently.
"We often come across some questions regarding disposal of the seized gold," said director general (DG) of customs intelligence Dr Moinul Khan.
To clear confusion, the directorate proposed an inter-departmental committee to check each of the cases, detected in recent times, and the volume of seized gold, deposited to the central bank, he also said.
Findings of the committee will be made public to address questions regarding depository of seized gold, he added.
The committees, comprising customs and BB official, will submit their respective reports to NBR. The reports will include depository of seized gold and foreign currencies to BB and process of their disposal from the central bank since July 2010.
The terms of reference of the committees will include numbers and dates of departmental cases, depository codes in respective customs houses, date and number of depository in BB, details of disposals, and reasons of unsettled departmental cases etc.
Customs officials usually keep seized gold and foreign currencies in their respective godown, and later deposit those to BB under supervision of security personnel, according to the rules of Foreign Exchange Regulations Act, 1947.
However, there are allegations of irregularities on depository of seized gold and foreign currencies due to a wide gap between the number of seizure and that of auction by BB.
The customs intelligence directorate on Monday seized 62.3777 kg gold bars from an aircraft of Bangladesh Biman.
The directorate on Tuesday formed a three-member committee, comprising joint director Mustafizur Rahman, and deputy directors Md Kamruzzaman and Md Omar Faruk. The committee will submit its report within the next ten days.
Customs intelligence officials seized 541 kg gold worth Tk 2.60 billion in calendar year 2014. In 2013, the volume of gold seizure was only 151 kg. Until Tuesday, they have seized 82 kg gold so far this year.
However, BB is yet to put the seized gold of 2014 on auction.
Talking to the FE, a senior BB official said solid gold bars are deposited in the reserve, while the central bank puts gold jewelries on auction.
"There is a long procedure on final settlement of gold. We have readied some 10 kg gold jewelries for auction."
BB cannot put gold on auction, bypassing the procedures, as it needs final verdict from High Court (HC) for this, he added.
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