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More money turns white in NBR witch hunt

JASIM UDDIN KHAN
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has stepped up its hunt and launched several drives recently to track down the black money holders.
The Central Intelligence Cell of NBR has conducted a number of searches including investigating personal accounts and suspicious monetary transactions to noose such illegal money holders on its list.
The vigorous vigilance and hunt have prompted the black money owners to respond well to the NBR call for declaring illegal money in order to avoid its seizure, NBR sources said.
Individuals and companies have whitened over Tk 100 crore of illegal money by declaring it with the NBR in the first quarter of the fiscal year 200506.
The amount whitened during the extended window of opportunity provided by the government to legalise undeclared illegal money is much higher than was expected, NBR sources said.
The provision, which faced wholesale criticism from all quarters, was extended by one year this fiscal year with only a 7.5 per cent tax on the declared black money. The NBR officials are expecting about Tk 1,000 crore black money to be declared in the current fiscal.
NBR Chairman Khairuzzaman Choudhury said last week the black money holders should take the opportunity this year, otherwise they will not be able to escape the board's vigilant network or punitive actions.
Tracking down tax dodgers and black money holders is a continuos process, the NBR chairman said, preferring not to disclose the identities of the individuals or companies who are coming forward to declare their illegal money. “If you publish their identities, the remaining black money holders will be afraid to come to the NBR,” he said.
Officials of the NBR said individuals may declare the amount of their illegal money after submitting their tax returns and the companies may declare the same at two different times, as some close their annual financial statements in June and some in January. Companies that closed their financial statements in June and have undeclared money are declaring them in the current tax-filing season.
The legalised money laundering facility has been offered six times in the 34 years since the independence, lasting for eight years in total.
During these eight years only Tk 3,695 crore black money entered the legal economy, according to a comprehensive NBR estimate last June.
The amount of black money whitened in FY01 was Tk 1,000 crore. That year payment of 10 per cent income tax was required to avail the facility, while the normal tax rate was 20 per cent.
In FY03, the government withdrew all taxes on whitening of black money for the first time. The facility was made available for the next three fiscal years provided that 100 per cent of the declared amount was invested in industry or services sectors or the capital market.
The provision elicited declaration of only Tk 1,775 crore during the three fiscal years put together.
An independent study in 2004 put the size of the black economy at Tk 70,000 crore.