4 Business firms launder Tk 382cr: CIID

Staff Reporter :
Four local companies have laundered Tk 382 crore in the name of exports through forged documents, claimed the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Tuesday.
The four business firms have committed such fraud in shipment of 1,780 products (18,265 tonnes) at different periods using fake export permits and different codes used mainly for the shipments of samples, relief and a smaller amount of items, said Fakhrul Alam, Director General (DG) of the CIID while speaking at a press conference at his office in the city.
The declared value of the consignments was $37.80 million or Tk 382 crore, but the actual value was much more than it, he said. Sabiha Saiki Fashion, an organisation in Dhaka’s Dakshinkhan area, exported garment products worth Tk 21 crore against 1,780 challans to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Malaysia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria, the DG said.
Asia Trading Corporation in Dhaka’s Ramna exported women’s wear worth Tk 282 crore against 1,382 challans to the UAE, Malaysia, Singapore, Qatar, and the UK.
Imu Trading Corporation in Dakshinkhan also exported garment products worth around Tk 62 crore against 273 challans to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Malaysia, Fakhrul said.
Another business entity named Ilham in Uttara exported garment products worth around Tk 17 crore against 39 challans.
A team headed by a Joint Director of the customs intelligence of Chattogram detected the anomalies, the CIID DG said.
The firms have used export permits of genuine exporters to evade customs, he said.
“Since there was no banking channel involved in the process, the proceeds from the shipments would not come to Bangladesh,” the CIID DG said.
“We are working to take legal actions against the exporters. Of course, a case will be filed for money laundering,” he added.