Whitening of black money still not allowed: Muhith

Finance Minister AMA Muhith refuted on Tuesday media reports saying that he had not allowed whitening of black money in the national budget for the current year 2014-15.
"You (the media) have misreported the provisions for regularising black money which is totally rubbish. It is utterly nonsense," Mr Muhith told reporters.
He was talking to media after a meeting with visiting Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Naoyqai Shinohara at his Economic Relations Division (ERD) office in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The finance minister said he had not given any extra benefit in the new budget to whiten black money. Rather the opportunity would be available as per the existing income tax law.
Earlier Mr Muhith, a day after placing the national budget on June 5 at the parliament, told newsmen that the budget would not allow whitening of black money from the FY 2014-15.
However, the 2014-15 budget, passed on June 28, offered legalisation of undisclosed income as in previous budgets bringing some small changes in the new Finance Bill.
He said told the parliament that undisclosed income or 'black money' could be invested in real estate by paying a 'certain amount' of tax per square metre of property bought. He, however, did not elaborate the rate of the tax.
When asked, Mr Muhith told reporters on Tuesday, "Whitening of undisclosed income would be continued as per the existing income tax law. But there are only some small changes in the provisions."
"We have changed the system for investment of the undisclosed money in the real estate sector. Previously, the money was calculated on the size of land purchased. Now it will be calculated on per square metre of a flat, purchased by the customer."
About investment of the black money in the treasury bonds, Mr Muhith said this facility has been discontinued as the government did not get any revenue on this account earlier.
When asked about the government's alleged ineffectiveness in taking action for the BASIC Bank scam, the finance minister said, "It is not true that we are not taking any step."
"Maybe there is some delay in taking action on the board of the bank, but we are moving for proper steps," he added.
When asked about his meeting with the IMF DMD at his office at the ERD, Mr Muhith said the IMF is happy over  reforms in Bangladesh under its extended credit facility (ECF) programme.
"We will get another two tranches of billion-dollar ECF. We are hopeful that we will receive the rest amount of money (in two tranches) by the middle of next year (2015)," he added.
When asked about any possibility of further financial support from the IMF, Mr Muhith said they would think about that after completion of the present ECF programme here.
After the fourth review of the ECF programme in May last, the IMF has decided to release US$140.9 million credit, fifth trance of its total $986 million loan commitment in 2012.
The Executive Board of the IMF decided to disburse the fund. This would bring total disbursements under the ECF arrangement to about US$704.3 million. The decision was taken without a formal Board meeting.
The three-year ECF arrangement for Bangladesh was approved by the Executive Board on April 11, 2012 for a total amount equivalent to SDR 639.96 million (about US$986 million), or 120 per cent of the quota.