The mention of names of a few Bangladeshi individuals and firms in documents such as Paradise Papers or Panama Papers revealing illicit fund transfers or offshore investments is nothing surprising. The amount of capital outflow through illegal ways was estimated to be around US$ 9.0 billion in 2014 alone, according to the last report of the Global Financial Integrity (GFI). It does make things rather obvious. The latest report of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that deals with as many as 12.4 million leaked documents, known as Paradise Papers, includes the names of at least 20 Bangladeshis who have opened offshore companies in Malta, a tax safe haven.
Until now, the names of 89 Bangladeshis have appeared in the Paradise Papers and a few names were also mentioned in the ICIJ's earlier document -- Panama Papers. More than 3000 Bangladeshis have so far invested in the Malaysia's Second Home scheme, making Bangladesh the third largest investor in the programme. All these statistics are available with the official website of the scheme. Truth is that not a single investor from Bangladesh transferred fund to Malaysia for investment in the scheme using legal routes. Nor did he or she seek permission from the government in this connection, knowing it fully well that law does not allow such fund transfer.
Barring the names of a few mentioned in ICIJ documents, no information is available regarding the other transferors of funds worth billions of dollar. However, the people have developed a perception-based list of villains involved in illegal transfer of funds abroad. Earlier, politicians used to dominate the list. But, lately, businessmen and high government officials have become the two main categories in this widely-discussed financial crime.
Transfer of funds abroad through illegal ways has been on the rise in recent years. The increase in capital outflow, however, is very much linked to the even-increasing trend of corruption in the country. Under the circumstances, one would feel tempted to ask one pertinent question -- what are all the agencies, responsible for dealing with the crime of illegal fund transfer, doing? Following the publication of the last GFI report on massive illegal fund transfers, particularly from the developing countries, the situation has improved in a number of countries, including India. Actions have been taken by their respective governments. But this can hardly be said about the situation in Bangladesh.
A few government agencies, including the new Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Bangladesh Bank, do often promise to initiate tough measures against illegal fund transfers and to retrieve the transferred funds. But until now they do not have any achievement to demonstrate. There is no denying that transfer of funds abroad illegally is quite difficult to stop in this age of communication technology. Yet, the extent of the crime could be brought down to a large extent if all the relevant agencies are serious about reaching their goals individually and collectively.
Trade transactions remain to be the widely used conduits for illegal fund transfers. The offence can be effectively curtailed through well-coordinated measures by banks, revenue authorities, anti-corruption commission and other law enforcing agencies. The issue here is the government's political will to combat the offence that is gravely hurting the economic interest of the country.
