Bangladesh News

The Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) finds itself in the centre of a controversy again as it has engaged in a tug of war with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) over detection of tax evasion incidents.
The ACC wrote a letter on Sunday to the NBR and Dhaka Customs House informing the agencies that a large amount of goods had been imported to the inland container depot (ICD) through under-invoicing and false declarations.

The commission also requested Dhaka Customs to launch a massive search to detect such tax evasions and to open suspicious containers for inspection in the presence of ACC officials.

The NBR reacted to the ACC move saying the move is in complete violation of the Customs Act and detection of tax evasions in such ways is beyond the ACC’s jurisdiction.

NBR chairman Abdul Karim said he has yet to receive the letter. “I have yet to get the letter. If the ACC issued such a letter it is beyond their jurisdiction,” the chairman said.

Sources said the NBR will inform Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman about the matter and seek his intervention in the tussle between the two government agencies.

Dhaka Customs yesterday formed a five-member committee headed by Lutfar Rahman, additional commissioner of the customs house, to investigate the matter.

ACC Commissioner Munir Uddin Ahmed said if the NBR has any legal restriction on opening suspicious consignments in the presence of ACC officials, it should write to the ACC expressing its opinion.

The ACC has every right to ask any person or agency to provide necessary information to detect corruption, Munir Uddin said.

The ACC commissioner also said, “Importing through under-invoicing and false declarations is the mother of many kinds of corruption. It has links with money laundering and evasion of taxes.”

“Despite having limitations we are continuing investigation of all the customs houses including Chittagong Customs House and Benapole Customs to detect tax evasions through under invoicing and false declarations,” Munir Uddin Ahmed added.

He said, the commission investigators detected a number of consignments imported illegally and one of the detected containers of such consignments will be opened for inspection next Thursday at Kamlapur ICD.

The customs officials with information from the ACC on August 3 this month seized a consignment of large quantity of cigarettes worth Tk 6 crore at ICD, which had been imported through false declaration. Another such consignment of spare parts for wrist watches was detected on August 8.

Munir Uddin Ahmed said in addition to ACC investigators’ vigilance, private citizens also help ACC with information in detection of false declarations and under-invoicing.