Ban import, release of casino products immediately

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Wednesday requested the commerce ministry to impose an immediate ban on the import and release of casino and other gambling products.
It also urged the ministry to amend the import policy order 2015-2018 to put the casino items on the list of banned products.
In a letter, the NBR said it is facing legal complications trying to stop the release of casino products as they are not banned items as per the import policy order of the country.
NBR Chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, who is also the secretary to the Internal Resources Division (IRD), sent the letter to Commerce Secretary Jafar Uddin.
In a separate letter on Wednesday, the customs wing of the NBR instructed all the customs houses across the country not to release casino products and components from the ports.
It also instructed the customs houses to conduct 100 per cent physical examination of imported games equipment to check entry and release of casino products in the guise of games equipment.
The customs said the products that are imported under HS code 9504 or other HS codes must go through 100 per cent physical examination at the customs points.
Such products include video game consoles and machines, articles for funfair, table and parlour games, including pintables, billiards, special table for casino games and automatic bowling alley equipment.
As per the article 18 (2) of the country's Constitution and the section 3 and 4 of Public Gambling Act-1867, gambling and gambling-related businesses are not allowed in the country.
"Due to such illegal activity, people are losing respect for the rules of law, which is leading to moral degradation and social unrest," the NBR said in its letter to the commerce ministry.
Officials said the NBR has directed the customs houses to take necessary measures to halt the release of the imported casino products from the ports until the commerce ministry comes up with a decision.
The NBR also requested the commerce ministry to take necessary steps in this regard, they added.
Both the request and the directive of the NBR came after the customs authority has detected a number of casino materials imported in the country taking the advantage of legal loopholes.
The matter came to the fore after the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) launched a crackdown on illegal casino business run mostly by Juba League leaders in major sporting clubs in the capital and other places of the country. Meanwhile, the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) of the NBR seized gambling machine -Mahjong - during a raid on the New Dragon Chinese Restaurant in the capital's Banani area on Wednesday.
CIID Additional Director General Mohammad Neajur Rahman and Shamima Akter led the team that raided the restaurant.
This week, the CIID team also seized a total of four Mahjong machines from different places.
The Mahjong machines were found at a poultry feed factory of New Hope Agrotech Bangladesh Ltd. in Munshiganj, a easy-bike battery factory of Dongjin Longervity Industry Ltd. and at a factory of Best Tycoon (BD) Enterprise in Narayanganj.

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