Finance ministry to expedite probe into money laundering cases

The Finance Ministry has been directed to expedite investigations of money laundering and terrorism financing cases. Besides, all concerned goverment bodies have been asked to meet the revenue collection target.

These instructions were given at a recent coordination meeting of the Internal Resources Division of the Ministry of Finance. Senior Secretary of the Division of Internal Resources Abu Hena Rahmatul Munim chaired the meeting.

The meeting also urged the Customs Excise and VAT Appellate Tribunal to continue the process of increasing the case disposal rate.

Besides, it has been directed to send the revised policy of the National Savings Certificate Scheme and the final draft law of the Post Office Savings Bank to the Internal Resources Division.

A senior official who attended the meeting, with the condition of anonymity, said the revenue collection during the pandemic has been good. Although it was earlier thought that the revenue would not be collected at the desired rate, the revenue collection rate was on the rise from July to November of the financial year, which was above 3 per cent.

As a result, all members of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), commissioners, tax commissioners and the director general (Research and Statistics) have been instructed to keep pace with the rising rate of revenue collection, the official said.

The latest status of money laundering and terrorism financing cases was highlighted in the meeting.

The Customs Intelligence and Investigation Department has so far filed 90 cases of money laundering and terrorism financing from July to December last year. Of these, 56 are under investigation. Charge-sheets of 5 cases have been submitted to the court and 5 more cases are being filed.

The meeting was further informed that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Department are jointly looking into one case related to money laundering. Apart from this, another investigation is being carried out jointly by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the CID, and the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Department.

Besides, 21 cases are under investigation by the CID and the ACC.

Moreover, sources said permission has been sought from the NBR to file three separate cases against an organization following a money-laundering probe. Besides, 17 cases of money laundering abroad are being probed at the field level. Three more trafficking allegations have been sent to the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Department.

The meeting also conducted a discussion about the investigation activities. It was said that the concerned investigating officers need to be more experienced. As a result, a joint workshop with Bangladesh Bank, ACC and Financial Intelligence Unit was decided to be held to further strengthen the money laundering investigation activities under the NBR.

The meeting asked everyone to work towards achieving the revenue collection target and to send a list of unresolved cases filed with the Customs Excise and VAT Appellate Tribunal to the Internal Resources Division on an urgent basis.

In the meeting, Senior Secretary of the Division of Internal Resources Abu Hena Rahmatul Munim wanted to know the reason for a large number of pending cases. In this context, the President Customs Excise and VAT Appellate Tribunal said the cases have been remaining pending since the creation of the tribunal in 1996. So far, all the cases have been listed. Older cases have been referred to different benches for trial.

According to the sources concerned, the number of unresolved cases was found to be 7,052 at the beginning of last December. A total of 86 new cases were filed that month. 142 cases were disposed of in the same month. At the end of December, the number of unresolved cases stood at 7,011.

In addition, the Taxes Appellate Tribunal had 1,589 unresolved cases by early December. In that month, 711 new cases were settled and 613 were disposed of. At the end of the month, the number of unresolved cases stood at 1,667.

The meeting discussed the issue of speedy disposal of these cases. It was directed to be implemented by the President of the Customs, Excise and VAT Appellate Tribunal.

It was also learned from the sources that a committee has been constituted to update all the policies of the National Savings Department in line with the digital system. The committee has already held seven meetings. At the latest meeting, the matter was finalized and the committee constituted by the government was directed to send the issue to the Internal Resources Division.

ask/zn