CID asked to probe Foreign Exchange Act violation
Saturday, 21 July 2007
Naim-Ul-Karim
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has identified more than 1200 individuals and companies siphoning off millions of dollars by violating foreign exchange act, sources said.
The government has already asked the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe such cases on a priority basis.
"We have started providing the CID the evidences of foreign exchange violation by those individuals and companies for investigation. They have been suspected to have siphoned off large amount of money out of the country through over invoicing," a high official of Bangladesh Bank (BB) requesting for anonymity told the FE.
Official sources said the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) has not been empowered by law to handle such cases, leading to piling up of a large number of cases since 2004, sources said.
Against this backdrop, the government as an interim arrangement, recently asked the CID to deal with such cases temporarily, they said.
"The CID has already started investigation in cooperation with the department concerned of the BB," said sources.
A senior BB official said the government should bring an amendment to the ACC law to empower the body to handle such cases as the CID is unlikely to perform properly due to lack of technical expertise.
BB officials said they themselves started assessing the evidences of violation to prepare a priority list of the companies and individuals in order to help the CID to complete the investigation soon.
He said a section of unscrupulous businessmen has siphoned off large amount of money out of the country by way of keeping a portion of export proceeds abroad and avoiding submission of bills of entry.
The number of such cases increased over the last few years as a section of businessmen is regularly resorting to over-invoicing to pay salary to their illegal foreign workers and employees.
In the process, the country is losing about $200 million every year.
Sources said the number of illegal foreign workers in the country is about 116,000. According to the Board of Investment (BoI), only about 20,000 legal foreign workers are legally employed in the country.
According to the National Board of Revenue, the government is being deprived of about Tk 3.5 billion as income tax every year for payment of salaries to the illegal foreign workers through informal channel.
However, central bank officials said the Foreign Exchange Act (FEA) 1947 is too inadequate to check the violation.
The draft copy of the amended FEA has long been lying with the Ministry of Law for vetting, they added.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has identified more than 1200 individuals and companies siphoning off millions of dollars by violating foreign exchange act, sources said.
The government has already asked the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe such cases on a priority basis.
"We have started providing the CID the evidences of foreign exchange violation by those individuals and companies for investigation. They have been suspected to have siphoned off large amount of money out of the country through over invoicing," a high official of Bangladesh Bank (BB) requesting for anonymity told the FE.
Official sources said the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) has not been empowered by law to handle such cases, leading to piling up of a large number of cases since 2004, sources said.
Against this backdrop, the government as an interim arrangement, recently asked the CID to deal with such cases temporarily, they said.
"The CID has already started investigation in cooperation with the department concerned of the BB," said sources.
A senior BB official said the government should bring an amendment to the ACC law to empower the body to handle such cases as the CID is unlikely to perform properly due to lack of technical expertise.
BB officials said they themselves started assessing the evidences of violation to prepare a priority list of the companies and individuals in order to help the CID to complete the investigation soon.
He said a section of unscrupulous businessmen has siphoned off large amount of money out of the country by way of keeping a portion of export proceeds abroad and avoiding submission of bills of entry.
The number of such cases increased over the last few years as a section of businessmen is regularly resorting to over-invoicing to pay salary to their illegal foreign workers and employees.
In the process, the country is losing about $200 million every year.
Sources said the number of illegal foreign workers in the country is about 116,000. According to the Board of Investment (BoI), only about 20,000 legal foreign workers are legally employed in the country.
According to the National Board of Revenue, the government is being deprived of about Tk 3.5 billion as income tax every year for payment of salaries to the illegal foreign workers through informal channel.
However, central bank officials said the Foreign Exchange Act (FEA) 1947 is too inadequate to check the violation.
The draft copy of the amended FEA has long been lying with the Ministry of Law for vetting, they added.