NBR suspends 4 senior officials

Staff Reporter :

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has suspended four more senior officials for allegedly blocking official work during recent protests.

An order signed on Monday by Abdur Rahman Khan, Secretary of the Internal Resources Division (IRD) and NBR Chairman, said the suspension was made under Section 39(1) of the Government Service Act, 2018.

The suspended officials are AAM Amimul Ehsan Khan, Additional Commissioner of Mongla Customs House, Sadhan Kumar Kundu, Additional Commissioner of Customs, Excise and VAT Commissionerate, Sylhet, Sanowarul Kabir, Joint Commissioner of Chattogram Customs, Excise and VAT Training Academy, Saidul Islam, Deputy Commissioner of Customs, Excise and VAT Commissionerate, Khulna.

Earlier, 14 other officials were suspended and four were sent on forced retirement.
According to the order, after the government introduced the Revenue Policy and Revenue Management Ordinance on 12 May, some officials from customs, excise, VAT, and income tax departments obstructed colleagues from performing their duties by organising protests.

The order added that by abandoning work and forcing others to join demonstrations at the NBR headquarters, the protests disrupted the country’s import and export operations.

NBR officials had staged demonstrations in May and June against the government’s decision to restructure the board under the new ordinance. On 28 and 29 June, port activities were severely disrupted due to the protests. The movement was later called off after the government took a strict position.