Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told the Parliament on Tuesday that legal proceedings are underway to recover the money laundered from the country based on specific information,  The minister, in reply to a tabled question from Jatiya Party MP Mashiur Rahman Ranga, said that due to various procedural and legal complications, recovery of laundered money takes a long time. He also mentioned that determining the amount of laundered money is very difficult. He, however, reiterated the government’s determination to bring home the laundered money.  Various development organisations and research organisations use different methodologies to estimate the amount of money smuggled out of the country. “But even those organizations do not claim to be accurate in their methodologies,” he said. The finance minister said, the reports of these organizations show conflicting information about the amount of money laundered from Bangladesh. “In fact, quantifying money laundering is extremely difficult. But regardless of the scale or amount of money laundering from the country, the government is determined to stop the possible sources of money laundering as well as prevent money laundering and bring the money back to Bangladesh,” Kamal said.   He said that for this purpose, all the government’s agencies are working together. Read more: Finance Minister Mustafa Kamal urges global leaders to ease economic crisis The finance minister expressed hope that money laundering will reduce to a large extent in the future due to the government's actions. Kamal said that Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) has been collecting information from foreign financial intelligence agencies about smugglers or smuggled money and providing it to various investigating agencies including the Anti-Corruption Commission, CID of Bangladesh Police and the National Board of Revenue. He also said that several cases related to buying flats or houses abroad (including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, United Kingdom, USA, Canada etc.) or in any other manner are currently under investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission. Besides, proceedings of several cases related to money laundering filed by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Bangladesh Police are ongoing. On the other hand, the inter-agency task force under the leadership of the Attorney General is working to recover the money smuggled abroad. Besides, the Ministry of Home Affairs has been designated as the central authority to provide mutual assistance in matters related to crime in order to ensure mutual legal cooperation with various countries. In response to a question from Workers Party MP Lutfun Nesa Khan, the finance minister said that Bangladesh is far below the risk limit as per the percentage of foreign debt-GDP. He said that the economy of Bangladesh is at a risk-free and satisfactory level in terms of foreign loans. Read more: $4.5bn IMF loan: 1st instalment expected next Feb, says Mustafa Kamal The finance minister claimed that there is no major risk in the medium and long term repayment of Bangladesh's foreign debt. Quoting the IMF report, the minister said that Bangladesh is risk-free in terms of foreign debt including domestic debt till 2032. In reply to another query, the finance minister said that 217 people have been sent to jail for defaulting on loans during the tenure of the current government. The incident of taking 12 farmers to jail for defaulting on loans (in Pabna) is related to Bangladesh Sambay Bank Ltd. It is not a scheduled bank under Bangladesh Bank. The minister also said it is not appropriate to comment on the issue of sending loan defaulters to jail as it under the jurisdiction of the courts.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Tuesday initiated a process for signing agreement with eight countries for mutual legal assistance to bring back money laundered abroad, said ACC Secretary Md. Mahbub Hossain. As part of the initiative, a committee has already been formed under the leadership of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) consisting of officials from various related organisations. The committee will submit the draft agreement to the Financial Institutions Department within the next three weeks, he said. Read: HC cancels 2014 acquittal of accused trio in Tk 12cr Sonali Bank graft case He said that the countries with which ACC wants to sign agreements are Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand.  

The High Court (HC) on Wednesday ordered the head of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) to form a research cell to prevent money laundering, bring back laundered money, monitor and control it. HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the order after fixing October 26 for next hearing. BFIU head Md Masud Biswas was also directed to submit a progress report regarding the formation of Research Cell by the next hearing. The court said only exchange of letters will not be effective to bring back the laundered money. HC asked the BFIU head, “You must take necessary effective steps. You need to monitor this issue properly. You must have knowledge and sincerity to this effect. If India can do it, why can't we?” The BFIU head appeared before the HC bench today (Wednesday) after being summoned on Tuesday. He also offered unconditional apology for submitting an incomplete report regarding the information of money deposited by Bangladeshis to Swiss Banks that contains no name, address or position of the person who submitted the same, said Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin. The court had observed that submitting such a report is like taking an action but without any responsibility. Read: HC summons BFIU chief over 'incomplete report' on black money in Swiss banks DAG Amin Uddin and Assistant Attorney General Anna Khanam Koli represented the state while advocate Khurshid Alam Khan appeared for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) during the hearing. On August 10, the Swiss ambassador in Dhaka Nathalie Chuard said that they have been providing the Bangladesh government with all information regarding deposits of Bangladeshi money in Swiss banks, "but no request has been submitted regarding any particular account". On August 11, the HC bench ordered the government and the ACC to explain why the government didn’t seek information of deposits of Bangladesh money stashed in Swiss banks. On August 14, BFIU was asked to submit a report in this regard in the affidavit form. On August 21, following the HC order, BFIU’s report was submitted stating that the information regarding deposits of 67 Bangladeshis in various Swiss banks was sought from the authorities concerned in Bern. But the Swiss authorities only provided the details of one individual in this regard which BFIU also submitted to the ACC, BFIU said in its report. According to the report, the Swiss bank published its annual report on June 16 this year. On the following day, the Swiss authorities were requested to provide necessary information about the money deposited by Bangladeshi banks and individuals in various Swiss banks through Egmont Secure Web (ESW). However, Bangladesh has not yet received any information. BFIU even asked FIEU for this information on June 17 last, it added.

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has urged the government to withdraw the proposed budgetary provision of allowing launderers to legalise their undeclared money, saying such provision will discourage genuine taxpayers. It is immoral, discriminatory and conflicts with the existing laws to allow legalising laundered money from abroad without questioning, announced in the national budget for FY2022-23, the graft watchdog body said in a statement on Friday. Also read: Law bars asking questions about laundered money: Finance Minister But, according to the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012 and the relevant international law, money laundering is a serious crime and such provision will encourage money laundering and corruption in general, said TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman. It is expected this provision will increase the foreign exchange flow and income tax revenue through the integration of money and assets earned abroad into the mainstream of the country's economy, he said. “But our past experience has shown that despite repeated opportunities to whiten black money in the country's economy, it has not yielded the expected results, nor has the government received the desired revenue.” It is impossible to bring back this laundered money or assets without a legal assistance agreement of our country with the authorities concerned in the country where the money is laundered, said Iftekharuzzaman. Besides, for those who are genuine taxpayers, the provision is blatantly discriminatory, as they pay at least three times the tax rate of 7 percent. This is discrimination and against the principles of the constitution, he added. In the proposed budget, the finance minister acknowledged the existing economic crises such as inflation, holding the value of the Taka against the dollar, increasing import costs and declining foreign exchange reserves, but could not provide effective strategies or guidelines to address them, he said. Also read: Budget FY23: Laundered money to be legalized by 7-15 pc tax The TIB executive director said although there is an expectation to expand social security programmes to reduce inflationary pressures on marginalised and low-income people, the proposed budget does not show much. “Rather, it has been shown to include government employees' pensions, interest on savings certificates, and loan waivers that were provided during Covid pandemic in order to maximize spending on the social security sector, which are not part of the Social Security programme."

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said the government is obliged by a law that those who will bring back their laundered money home will not be questioned any more. Defending his move, announced in the national budget for FY2022-23, he said most of such money is undeclared and smuggled out due to the faulty system. He made this remark while addressing a post-budget press conference at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the city on Friday.      Also read: Budget offers no good news for lower, middle income groups: CPD Fielding a volley of questions on the issue, he said many countries in Asia, America and Europe have declared amnesty for the money launderers.   According to a provision declared in the newly placed national budget, no authority, including the income tax collectors, shall raise any question as to the source of any asset located abroad if a taxpayer pays extra taxes on such assets. The proposed rate is 15 per cent for immovable property not repatriated to Bangladesh, 10 per cent for movable property not repatriated to Bangladesh and 7 per cent for cash and cash equivalents repatriated to Bangladesh.  This will take effect from July 1. A question was asked by a reporter that in the past the government had declared a "Truth Commission" and provided scope for legalising illegal money through paying tax, but later the names of the persons who took the opportunity were disclosed. So, how could people trust the new assurance and take the opportunity? Answering the question, Kamal said the government will use some tools so that people will be encouraged to bring the smuggled illegal money back.   "But this will not discourage or undermine those people who regularly pay taxes", he added. Supporting his view Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzak, who present on the occasion, supported the government move in this regard and said that the Truth Commission was formed during the caretaker government which was a non-constitutional government. "But Awami League is a constitutional government and the relevant law is passed by the government to give the guarantee to the people not to raise any question in future", he added. The finance minister claimed that the newly unveiled national budget will bring benefits for all the segments of the society, specially, for the poor. "I was born in a poor family and raised up from poverty. So, I do feel the pain of the poor", he said, adding that so many measures including allocation for social safety-net programmes were increased in the new budget.     

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said that the government is contemplating amnesty for bringing the laundered money back into the country. “We’re thinking of announcing amnesty for bringing the smuggled money back,” he told reporters in briefing after the two consecutive meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) and Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Thursday. Also read: Finance minister directs regulators to boost investment in stock market He said Bangladesh Bank will make more announcements in this regard before the national budget is placed in Parliament. He said the issue of amnesty will be reflected in the national budget. "The initiative will be taken by the Bangladesh Bank and announced by it through circulars. But we don’t want to make any announcement in this regard before placing the national budget in parliament”, he said. The finance minister’s remarks came in response to the reporters’ questions on the government’s initiative as Bangladesh Bank recently announced that any person will be allowed to bring in upto $5000 from abroad without any prior declaration and no question will be asked about the source of the money. Such an announcement from the central bank came to encourage people to bring more US dollars against the backdrop of its prevailing crisis. Recently, the greenback gained strength against the local currency as the dollar rate went up to Tk 100 in the kerb market while officially Bangladesh Taka (BDT) was depreciated on a number of occasions. Kamal said the initiative is being taken mainly to bring back that money which was laundered from the country. He, however, did not give any detail of the amount as to how much money was laundered. “I can’t give you any idea how much money was laundered. But we collect information from the media and other official and non-official sources”, he said. Also read: Finance minister hints at hard decisions due to Russia-Ukraine war He said different countries are announcing amnesty like tax exemption. “We’re also thinking so”. The finance minister said he believes that the people who laundered money will take advantage of the government’s amnesty as it is a good scope for them. Responding to a question on the issue, he said there is a dollar crisis. “But it’s not at a level that would hamper our import. We have enough dollars in our reserves to run the import business”, he said.

The High Court on Sunday sought a list of people who have laundered money from Bangladesh.

The High Court (HC) has fixed Thursday to deliver its order in a writ petition seeking measures to bring back laundered money from different foreign banks, including the Swiss Bank Corporation.