NBR forms team to find info
The National Board of Revenue has recently formed a team to work on plans to gather information on Bangladeshis who have bought properties abroad, a senior NBR official said yesterday.The tax authority asked the four-member committee to submit its work plans in a month on ways to identify the people who bought properties in Malaysia, United Arab Emirates and other countries by siphoned off money.
The tax administrator formed the panel after Finance Minister AMA Muhith last week said the NBR was set to prepare a list of individuals who had been laundering money abroad.Before Muhith, the plan was also unveiled by NBR Chairman Md Ghulam Hussain.The decision was taken to check whether the individuals have paid an appropriate amount of taxes to the state coffers, he told at a programme earlier.
The NBR's initiative came following reports of siphoning off funds to different countries, including Malaysia, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Australia and the US, through legal and illegal means to purchase properties.According to the data of the Malaysian government, 2,874 Bangladeshis had enrolled for the Malaysia My Second Home programme as of April this year, meaning at least Tk 3,506 crore was taken away from Bangladesh.
The capital flight is also reflected in the amounts deposited in Swiss banks. Deposits by Bangladeshi citizens at various Swiss banks rose 62 percent year-on-year in 2013 to Tk 3,236 crore, according to the data from the Swiss National Bank, the country's central bank.
Insiders said the committee may work to detect those who have bought homes in Malaysia, and those who have been laundering money abroad.
Under the scheme, the NBR will examine ways to seek info from countries with which it has agreements on avoidance of double taxation. Bangladesh has such agreements with 33 countries.The tax authority may also consider revisiting existing agreements if the current deals do not provide scope for exchange of information of Bangladeshi nationals investing in those countries, officials said.
