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Whitening of the black money, legally

Sayed Kamaluddin | Wednesday, 17 June 2015


Former Chinese strongman Deng Xiaoping has been widely quoted as having said that it does not matter if the cat is white or black as long as it catches the mice. In Bangladesh we really don't bother about black or white cat or even if it is able to catch mice, but we certainly do care about whitening of the black money.  
Our Finance Minister AMA Muhith doesn't really differentiate between black and white money as long as it is able to contribute to the coffer of NBR (National Board of Revenue) coffer. He says money has no colour. He has apparently tried to tell the media that he was not really supportive of any provision in the budget to whiten the black money. However, in one of his budget speeches few years ago he was critical of the past governments for making provisions for whitening untaxed or black money.
As it happened last year, the finance minister in his budget speech this year, too, did not make any mention of utilising black money but quietly left the provisions incorporated earlier untouched. Actually, he became more helpful this year to those having amassed untaxed income to legalise it by investing in real estate by reducing the rate of tax if they follow the procedures - which are now legal - and NBR wouldn't ask them any question.
For example, if a black money holder wants a buy a flat (to whiten his/her untaxed money) outside the jurisdiction of the city corporation, he has to pay a reduced rate of tax while for those who would like to invest in real estate within the limits of the city corporations, the tax provision remains as before. This, he says, will help the country's construction industry which is going through a bad time.
According to a report, during FY2013-14, a new open-ended clause in the income tax law known as 19BBB was added to whiten black money and the clause will remain valid until it is repealed. Now, if any black money holder isn't interested to undertake the hassle of buying flats or property for the purpose, he/she can still legalise the untaxed money by merely paying a 10 per cent tax. And again yes, NBR will not or cannot ask any question.   
ONLY THE LEGALLY EARNED MONEY: It has been stated that this provision facilitates ensuring a balance in tax payment system and also pointed out that this privilege will not apply to 'money obtained through terrorism and corruption'. In fact, the finance minister said that 'only the money earned through legal ways could be whitened.' One may sincerely ask a question: if money is earned legally, how does it remain untaxed?
It appears to add to the confusion further. For example, a taxation expert has opined that the NBR has no mechanism to verify if the untaxed money is earned through legal or illegal ways. However, nothing has been stated if someone who has amassed huge sum through extortion, bank robbery or simply by tender manipulation and voluntarily declared it as untaxed money, what will happen to him? As per the budgetary provisions, he is very much entitled to legalise his money by paying a token tax of 10 per cent. If it happens, the NBR has to look the other way as it is promise-bound not to ask him any question about the source of his money.    
So, the businesspersons, who work hard, take risks and create employment facilities, end up paying 25 per cent or more tax to settle their account and the untaxed money holder, who has not created any job, is given the opportunity to legalise his untaxed money by paying merely a fraction of tax that he is normally supposed to pay. If this not a double standard being practised by the government, then what is it?  
On this subject former finance advisor to a caretaker government Dr. AB Mirza Azizul Islam made an interesting observation: "I have always opposed the scope for whitening black money as it is immoral… If it cannot be verified whether an amount of money is earned through legal ways or not, what is the logic behind giving the scope?"       
In fact, he said, instead of continuing this policy year after year, the sources of black money should be identified and blocked.
Those who are in the know of things suggest that the facility of whitening black money is given almost every year but it never provided the government any substantial revenue. A report said that 'only 205 people whitened undisclosed amount of money through voluntary disclosure of income in FY2013-14 and the NBR could obtain only Taka 18 crore (180 million).'
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