Govt moves to collect taxes from frozen bank accounts of overseas asset transferers

The government has formed a high-level committee to determine how to collect customs duties and taxes owed to the state from bank accounts frozen or attached by court orders in connection with assets allegedly siphoned abroad.
A seven-member committee has been formed with the attorney general as its convener, according to a notification issued by the Financial Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance.
The notification, signed by Afroza Akter Riba, deputy secretary of the Financial Institutions Division, said that the director general of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has been appointed as the member-secretary of the committee.
The other members are the additional secretary of the Central and Commercial Banks Wing of the Financial Institutions Division; the director general of the Anti-Corruption Commission’s Money Laundering Department; the chief officer of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU); the director general of the NBR’s Central Intelligence Cell (CIC); and the deputy inspector general of the Organised Crime Division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Bangladesh Police.
According to the notification, the committee will determine the legal and other measures that can be taken to recover government dues in the form of customs duties and taxes from bank accounts that have been frozen or attached by court orders in connection with assets allegedly transferred abroad.

The committee will also prepare recommendations for the government on effective measures to recover the outstanding dues.
The notification said that it was issued with the approval of the relevant authorities and would take effect immediately.
The move comes amid government efforts to recover assets allegedly transferred abroad.
In July, BFIU chief Iqtiaruddin Md Mamun said that assets worth Tk76,000 crore belonging to former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her family, along with some business groups, had been frozen through court orders both in Bangladesh and abroad.
According to Mamun, assets worth Tk57,000 crore had been frozen within Bangladesh, while assets valued at Tk19,000 crore had been frozen abroad.
The newly formed committee is expected to examine how government claims for taxes and customs duties can be recovered from the frozen or attached bank accounts linked to such assets and recommend the necessary legal and administrative steps.