Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed on Monday categorically denied any role of the government in the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) probe against six senior officials of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
“Definitely, from the government side there is no interference,” he said
Salehuddin was responding to a question after officially announcing the successful completion of the budget preparation for 72 institutions for the current year using the State-Owned Enterprises (SoE) and Autonomous Bodies (AB) Budget, Reporting and Evaluation Database (SABRE+) at his office in the Finance Division.
The ACC on Sunday laucnhed the probe in what they called ‘on charges of corruption, abuse of power and nepotism in facilitating illegal benefits for individuals and institutions over the past two decades.’
The six officials under investigation are: AKM Badiul Alam, member (Income Tax Policy); Mirza Ashiq Rana, additional tax commissioner, Tax Zone-8, Dhaka; Mohammad Morshed Uddin Khan, joint tax commissioner, BCS Tax Academy; Monalisa Shahreen Sushmita, deputy tax commissioner, Tax Zone-16, Dhaka; Hasan Tarek Rikabdar, additional commissioner, Audit, Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, VAT, Dhaka; and Sadhan Kumar Kundu, additional commissioner, Customs, Excise and VAT Commissionerate, Dhaka (South).
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The finance adviser, however, said that there is reason to raise question about the timing of the ACC investigation launched after NBR smarted from protests by officials.
“But this is not only in NBR, there are so many people across the country against whom the ACC is running their investigations,” he said.
Among the six persons, Hasan Tarek serves as the president of the NBR Reform Unity Parishad, whichh was leading a movement seeking structural reform of the board instead of its dissolution.
According to the ACC, the officials allegedly accepted bribes in exchange for reducing tax liabilities and, in some cases, filed false cases against businespeople when demands for bribes were not met.
The adviser said that the revenue loss incurred due to the agitation programmes was just ‘unfortunate.’
“This is not acceptable at all, you might have problem with the government, but it does not mean you will shut down a national service,” he said.
He also mentioned that shutting down port is not acceptable as this entity is not a private property.
“And you are paid by the government,” he added.
The finance adviser said that the government has formed a five-member adviser-level committee to suggest ways to resolve the stalemate centering the reforms in National Board of Revenue (NBR).
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The committee will be led by Energy Adviser Fouzul Kabir Khan while the other members included Housing and Public Works Adviser Adilur Rahman Khan, Labour and Employment Adviser Brigadier General (Retd) M Sakhawat Hussain, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan, and Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin.
“They will place their recommendations and we will look into those,” he said.
He aslo urged the NBR officials and employees to work sincerely to make up the revenue loss incurred due to protest programmes.