The government is learnt to have set a strategy to freeze or confiscate unreported assets owned and kept abroad by Bangladeshi nationals. To this effect, as reported in this paper on December 07, a guideline on the legal framework and the strategic process was approved the day before by the task force on money laundering in its meeting chaired by the finance minister. To begin with, as the guideline says, the government will carry out joint investigations with the countries where the assets to be retrieved had been transferred illegally. In case, the holders of the offshore assets try to relocate their wealth to a third country to evade the law in the host country due to any delay in court procedure there, the government will have the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) send a letter rogatory (letter of request), seeking judicial assistance of the court in the foreign (host) country concerned. In this manner, the guideline would, it is said, enable the government to confiscate the assets laundered abroad even before the holder of that asset is convicted in the court.
It may be noted in this connection that to expedite the process of retrieving the laundered money lying in offshore destinations, the High Court (HC) last October ordered that within the following three months, the BFIU, through the finance ministry, should get Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) agreements signed with 10 countries including the US, the UK, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and China. The HC directive also asked the BFIU to form a research cell in its office to identify the persons who laundered money overseas. Evidently, the present move of the task force to recover wealth stashed in overseas locations follows the said HC order and a report on the progress so made is scheduled to be submitted by the BFIU to the HC in February next year.
In fact, the effort to get back the assets illegally taken overseas has been going on since long. The government has also been offering amnesty to the owners of the black money to whiten their wealth through payment of a penal tax. But the holders of undisclosed assets were never much enthusiastic about taking advantage of the government offer. According to reports, by June, 2022, only 2,300 people took the opportunity to whiten their undisclosed assets. The low response had to do with, the report added, high tax and penalty imposed on the money to be whitened. Notably, in FY22, the total tax rate including fine came to 26.25 per cent whereas in FY21 it was 10 per cent.
On this score, it would be better if the government had the data on the money and other assets so stolen from the country and kept in foreign locations. A reference may be made in this connection to the report published by the Washington-based think-tank, Global Financial Integrity (GFI). It says that between 2009 and 2015 (except 2014), Bangladesh lost on an average US$49.65 billion to such stealing of funds overseas. In the seven more years that have passed meanwhile, one wonders how much wealth of the country has been illegally transferred abroad! So, it is time the work to retrieve the assets stashed away in overseas locations was further speeded up by the government. That is more urgent at a time when the economy is running a current account deficit and, in particular, is grappling with a shortfall in foreign exchange reserve.