The National Board of Revenue (NBR) Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) has started a special investigation against the BEXIMCO Group, NASSA Group, Summit Group, Bashundhara Group, and Orion Group for their amassment of illegal wealth through various means.
There are allegations that these controversial groups, firms, and their owners are tax evaders on the basis of various published media reports and special secret information for their amassment of illegal wealth, said a statement of the NBR.
The CIC has already completed lists of such suspicious tax evaders that include BEXIMCO Group co-founder and vice chairman Salman F Rahman, NASSA Group Chairman Nazrul Islam Mazumder, Summit Group Chairman Muhammad Aziz Khan, Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, Orion Group Chairman Obaidul Karim and people associated with them.
It added that punitive measures, alongside prompt steps, would be taken for recovering the evaded tax through conducting drives against such individuals and firms under the Income Tax Act, 2023 and Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012.
In this regard, letters have been sent to various banks and financial institutions, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), National Savings Directorate, and other relevant offices seeking information on bank accounts of such suspicious tax evaders.
The revenue board statement said such investigation operations of the CIC would continue.
Controversial groups
BEXIMCO Group owes around Tk 36,865 crore to seven banks in the country, including four public, and three private banks. These banks are Janata Bank, Sonali Bank, Rupali Bank, Agrani Bank, National Bank, IFIC Bank, and AB Bank.
Beximco got its defaulted loans rescheduled on many occasions by compelling the regulators to make or amend rules. Beximco, in a letter to the central bank, called for urgent debt restructuring to survive.
Summit Group Chairman Muhammad Aziz Khan's net worth is $1.12 billion and he is the 41th richest person in the world. As one of the closest of the ousted government, Summit group got Tk 10,623 crore as capacity charge which was looted actually to Singapore where Aziz Khan lives.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is investigating two separate allegations of embezzlement of over Tk 100 billion against Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, the chairman of the Bashundhara Group, a notorious land-grabber.
NASSA Group, a garment manufacturer led by Nazrul Islam Mazumder who is the chairman of Exim Bank, were given interest waivers amounting to Tk 261 crore bypassing banking rules, in a testament to the outsize influence oligarchs had on the banking sector during the Awami League-led government of the past 15 years.
There is an allegation that Orion Group has looted money in the energy sector. Despite repeated failures in the construction of power plants, this group was repeatedly given responsibility for new power plants due to its closeness to the government.
The company had earlier undertaken a project to upgrade the refining capacity of Chittagong Eastern Refinery (the country's only fuel oil refinery) from 1.5 million to 4.5 million under PPP in 2010, though they do not have sufficient funds.
