The Bangladesh Jewellers Association (BAJUS) will take stern actions, if any member of the platform is found guilty of gold smuggling.
The association gave the assurance in a meeting with the Bangladesh Financial Intelligent Unit (BFIU), held at the Bangladesh Bank (BB) headquarters in the capital on Thursday.
A 13-member delegation of the jewellers' apex body, led by its president Sayem Sobhan Anvir, joined the meeting, chaired by BFIU Head Md. Masud Biswas.
"We assured the BFIU officials of taking stern actions, if any member of the association is found guilty of gold smuggling. Till to date, no jewellery house has been found guilty by any agency," BJA General Secretary Dilip Kumar Agarwala told the reporters in a post-meeting briefing.
Responding to a question, he said the BJA requested the BB to make disposal of the gold - seized by various agencies for illegal entry - as quickly as possible.
The central bank invited gold traders to submit tenders to purchase a total of 2,170 bhori (25 kg) gold, seized through drives by various intelligence agencies.
Interested certified gold traders could take part in the tender by depositing a non-refundable sum of Tk 2,000 and submitting necessary documents on November 14-20.
Mr. Agarwala also informed the reporters that both the BFIU and the BAJUS reached a consensus for working together to prevent possible scopes of gold smuggling by sharing data of 40,000 members.
"We'll share our database of 40,000 members with the BFIU, and the agency will analyse it," BAJUS President Sayem Sobhan Anvir said.
When asked about the quantity of smuggled gold in the country, he said the BAJUS does not have any data in this regard.
BFIU Head Md. Masud Biswas told the BAJUS leaders that smuggling of precious metals like gold is a crime as per the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012, and the trade bodies concerned would report to the BFIU, if they smell any suspicious activity.
He asked the association to conduct regular training on anti-money laundering and awareness campaign as well as assist the BFIU in its anti-money laundering activities.
