The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on Friday called for the cancellation of the offered amnesty for money launderers to get laundered money back in the proposed budget of the FY2022-23.
“This unethical opportunity will provide state-protection to despicable criminals such as money launderers," TIB said in a press release.
"Crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war have caused global economic instability. In the circumstances, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has made an unethical proposal to bring back the money smuggled to others country without any question, aiming to keeping the country's economy afloat. This is completely unconstitutional," the release stated.
TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the opportunity to bring back laundered money with nominal taxes is a way to reward criminals, no matter how the finance minister explained the issue.
However, according to the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012 and the relevant international law, money laundering is a serious crime. This proposed opportunity will encourage money laundering and corruption in general.
He said the proposal is discriminatory for taxpayers who depend on legitimate income. Therefore, this unethical decision must be canceled immediately. At the same time, steps must be taken to bring back the money laundered following the national and international procedures.
Iftekharuzzaman furthermore said that in the proposed budget, the finance minister had acknowledged the crises such as inflationary pressure and declining foreign exchange reserves, but could not provide guidance on how to deal the crisis.
Although there is an expectation to expand the social safety net, but there is no sign of such. On the contrary, in order to increase the expenditure of the social security, it has been shown that the waiver of pension of government employees, interest on savings certificates and loans given in the wake of Coronavirus's impact has been included, the TIB executive director remarked.
