Govt defends amnesty for laundered money
Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Friday said that no objection should be given to the proposed budgetary measure aiming at the repatriation of money held by Bangladeshis abroad.
Hindrances will not help the government to bring back the money assumed to be smuggled out of the country, he said while defending the controversial measure at a post-budget press conference in the city’s Osmani Memorial Auditorium.
He also defended other fiscal measures, including the projected high borrowing from the banking system, and the projected revenue income.
The finance minister said that the proposed money repatriation measure was not unethical as 17 countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the US, the UK, France, Canada and Norway, had offered such opportunities to bring back smuggled-out money.
Indonesia in 2016 succeeded in getting back $9.6 billion, he said.
He hoped that the scope for legalising smuggled-out money would be widely used as many countries were tightening the noose around those who siphoned money to those countries.
Referring to the assurance given by India on the repatriation to Bangladesh of NRB Global Bank managing director Prasanta Kumar Halder and the money he laundered to that country, Mustafa Kamal said that Canada also announced selling out houses bought by money smugglers.
No question will be raised about the sources of assets held abroad if an owner pays 15 per cent tax on immovable properties, 10 per cent on movable properties and 7 per cent on cash or cash-equivalents.
The finance minister, at the press conference, was aided by agriculture minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, health minister Zahid Maleque, education minister Dipu Moni and state minister for planning Shamsul Alam during a one-and-half-a-hour parley that mostly centred on the money repatriation facility, the inflation measures, the high bank borrowing and the uncertainty over the Russia-Ukraine war.
The finance minister viewed that the proposed money legalisation measure, unlike the earlier truth commission, would get a high response.
The military-backed caretaker administration, which set up the truth commission in 2008, was not a legal government as per the constitution, said Abdur Razzaque, adding that the present government is an elected one.
The finance minister was also assisted by Bangladesh Bank governor Fazle Kabir, finance secretary Abdur Rauf Talukder and National Board of Revenue chair Rahmatul Mumin while answering questions on inflation and projected bank borrowing.
Abdur Rauf Talukder said that the projected credit of over Tk 1lakh crore from the country’s banking channel to meet the budget deficit to the tune of 5.5 per cent of the gross domestic product in FY23 would not crowd out the private sector.
They have set the projection on the assumption that money supply growth would be 15 per cent by the Bangladesh Bank in the new financial year, he said.
Banks, he further said, might face problems in fund management if the government does not borrow from the banking system.
He also explained that the government strategy to boost supply and reduce demand to contain the price spiral of essential commodities.
The proposed budget, he noted, is 15 per cent of the GDP compared against the outgoing FY22 budget accounting for 17 per cent of the GDP.
He also noted that they were providing subsidy on fuel, food and fertiliser to keep the supply-side demand.
He further said that the government might not have to spend the whole of the projected subsidy amounting to over Tk 82,000 crore on fuel, fertiliser and the liquefied natural gas in FY23 if prices of these items dropped on the world market.
‘We can easily transfer fund elsewhere,’ said the finance secretary.
Finance minister Mustafa Kamal on Thursday placed a Tk 6.78 lakh crore national budget for FY23, projecting a 7.5 per cent GDP growth and inflation at 5.6 per cent.
He hoped that the government would be able to tide over the uncertain time resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war with flexibilities in the economy and resilience of the country’s people.
He also said that the NBR could explore a lot of areas to increase revenue since about four crore people of the country fell in the higher middle-income category.
News Courtesy:
https://www.newagebd.net/article/172945/govt-defends-amnesty-for-laundered-money
