Govt sits today to devise strategies

The government sits today (Tuesday) to devise strategies for combating money laundering, officials said.

In the meeting, the national coordination committee will discuss the issue of nominating the Attorney General's office as a central authority to step up efforts against money laundering, they said.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith will preside over the meeting. Law Minister Anisul Huq and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan are likely to be present at the meeting.

"We will sit to discuss and review the modus operandi and the jurisdiction of the two central authorities," a finance ministry official said.

On an average, a sum of US$ 7.58 billion is said to be siphoned out of the country annually through trade mis-invoicing and illegal money outflow.

This is a minimum estimated amount of average annual outflow of what is dubbed 'dirty money' from the country during the last one decade (2005-2014).

Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based research organisation, unveiled the estimate in its latest report titled 'Illicit Financial Flows to and from Developing Countries: 2005-2014.'

The report mentioned that illicit financial outflows from Bangladesh ranged between 12 per cent and 17 per cent of the country's annual trade.

It put Bangladesh's total trade value for 2005-2014 at $ 446.153 billion.

"If 17 per cent of trade value is calculated, the amount laundered in last 10 years will stand at $ 75.84 billion," the report said.

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