Bangladesh News

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is preparing to file cases against the top 55 graft suspects for concealing information about their income, submitting fabricated tax statements and non-compliance with income tax rules.

The cases will be filed in a special court in phases under the Income Tax Ordinance, 1984, which will be first of its kind, sources said.

Talking to the reporters at his office yesterday, NBR Chairman Badiur Rahman said preliminary scrutiny has been completed. “Now we will formulate a model format for filing the cases and we will discuss with the law experts to create this format.”

He, however, declined to disclose any specific date regarding the start of filing of the cases.

Once the format is approved by an NBR body in compliance with the section 169 of the Income Tax Ordinance, the board will start the case-filing process against the suspects that includes politicians and top business men, sources added.

Under the section 165 of the Income Tax Ordinance, the minimum punishment for submitting fabricated income tax statement is three months’ detention, which can go up to three years’ imprisonment or fine or both.

The punishment for concealing income related details under the section 166 is from three months’ to five years’ imprisonment or fine or both.

The punishment under the section 164 of the ordinance is one-year jail or fine or both for non-compliance of the income tax rules.

Following the caretaker government’s move against top graft suspects of the country, the NBR in early March asked all banks to freeze the accounts of these 55 people, who hold at least 40 times more money in their bank accounts than the amounts declared in their tax statements.

The NBR chairman revealed last month that the undisclosed bank deposits of these people totalled around Tk 119 crore.