Govt plans to unfreeze 1,500 bank accounts

Sunday, August 15, 2010
But decides not to return Tk 1,200cr collected during anti-graft drive

The government is soon to prepare a policy to allow for restoring activities on about 1,500 bank accounts seized during the last caretaker government's anti-corruption drives. However, the realised money, amounting to Tk 1,200 crore, will not be returned to individuals and businesses, officials say.

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith revealed the government's plan in a letter to National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Nasiruddin Ahmed recently.

He also asked the NBR to make a report on the seized accounts with a complete list of individuals and organisations.

"A good number of bank accounts are unreasonably kept frozen for long,'' Muhith wrote. ''These accounts need to be unfrozen. We want to fix the problem through a policy."

The finance minister added, "We won't take any action regarding the money the caretaker government realised because a law is necessary to make returns of the money from government account. We are not ready to undertake any such measures.''

He said accounts of people with no pending income tax cases would be unfrozen first.

NBR and Bangladesh Bank had requested the government deal with the money issue, because neither of the two has any legitimate authority to handle it.

A joint task force confiscated the amount from a number of businessmen and politicians as penalties during anti-graft drives in 2007 and 2008, said a high official of the finance ministry seeking anonymity as he isn't authorised to talk over the issue.

The government would like to use the money for loan payback, the official added.