Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The central bank of Bangladesh has intensified its efforts to check capital flight using over-and under- invoicing in the name foreign trade, officials said.
The central bank’s latest move came as deposits made by Bangladeshi nationals with different Swiss banks reportedly swelled by 62 percent to BDT 32.36 billion (372 million Swiss francs) in 2013 from BDT 19.91 billion in 2012.
Only a couple of days after the publication of that report, a study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) claimed that Bangladesh lost on an average US$800 million annually in capital flight during the last four decades driven by balance of payment leakages, dubious trade invoicing and unreported remittances.
Experts concerned said the factors involving the flight of capital are multiple and without a close watch on the part of the agencies concerned it is hard to deal with the problem effectively.
Besides, they said, since the destinations of such capital, in most cases accumulated through illegal means and abuse of power, are many it is really a tough task to track down those without adequate preparations.
“We’ve discussed with senior officials of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Tuesday to establish an integrated automated system shortly for sharing information on foreign trade between the two authorities,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
The central banker also said the system will help both check tax evasion and capital flight.
“The realisation of export bills has been improved following introduction of electronic monitoring system, generally known as ‘dashboard’ to check fraud and forgery in the country’s banking sector,” he noted.
Earlier on February 12 last year, the BB launched the dashboard for monitoring all kind of foreign exchange transactions.
Besides, the central bank, the NBR and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) are now working jointly to check illegal fund transferred.
“The central bank has already signed a deal with the ACC for sharing information on money laundering between the two agencies,” another BB official said.
He also said the central bank has already sent a letter to the financial intelligence unit (FIU) of Switzerland for signing sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to gather information on the money-laundering matters.
The central bank has already signed such deal with 24 countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Sri Lanka, India, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Malaysia and the Philippines, according to the official.
Bangladesh as a member of the Egmont Group, a forum of the Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) of different countries, is now empowered to exchange information on money laundering and terror financing among its member-countries.
An FIU is a central, national agency responsible for receiving (and, as permitted, requesting), analysing and disseminating to the competent authorities disclosures of financial intelligence.
Bangladesh got the membership at an annual general meeting of the Egmont in Sun City, South Africa, on July 3 last year.
The Group has now 147 members across the world to promote and enhance international cooperation in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing and to foster the implementation of domestic programess in this field.
BBN/SSR/AD-26June14-2:16 pm (BST)
