Parliament Correspondent, bdnews24.com
Members of parliament, including some from the ruling party, have torn into Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal for offering amnesty to money launderers if they bring back the funds by paying taxes.
In the budget unveiled last Thursday for FY23, the minister proposed a 15 percent tax on immovable property located abroad, and a 10 percent tax on movable asset if it is brought back to the country.
Kamal also proposed a 7 percent tax on remittances coming into Bangladesh as part of his desperate efforts to fill in the deficit he proposed in the budget.
The proposals have drawn flak from economists, researchers and politicians. On Sunday, MPs condemned the proposals in parliament after Jatiya Party lawmaker Pir Fazlur Rahman called for a discussion on the issue.
He demanded legal steps against people who smuggled their dirty money out of the country. “If we don’t do this, we didn’t need to pass the law to prevent money laundering.”
Pir Fazlur praised Kamal for other budget proposals that aim to protect people from the ripple effects of the coronavirus pandemic, but remarked, “He could not prevent tens of billions of taka from being smuggled out of the country.”
“People now suspect a large quarter is waiting to smuggle out their illegal income and this proposal will fulfil their objective. This will encourage illegal income.”
“When people are working hard to earn money in an honest way, some are looting and sending funds abroad to bring those back by paying tiny amounts of taxes. This will make thieves big taxpayers.”
Ruling Awami League MP Pran Gopal Datta urged Kamal to reconsider the proposal to bring back laundered funds. “They [money launderers] would have kept the money in Bangladesh had they been so honest. We must not forget that a thief is a thief.”
The Jatiya Party’s Shameem Haider Patwary asked what would happen if a person currently being tried for money laundering bring back the funds. “Will the case continue? India also took a similar initiative but it failed.”
The finance minister on Friday defended the proposal, saying the people of the country have a 'right' to the money smuggled abroad, which the government aims to secure.
"What has been trafficked is the right of the people of this country. If we place obstruction, the assets will not come back and in that case, how will we be benefitted? We want to do what other countries do. Seventeen countries are granting amnesty to bring back money into their economies," Kamal had said.
