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Steps to stop money laundering in import

High-powered meeting also for speedy enactment of anti-terror financing law

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
A high-powered meeting chaired by Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman yesterday adopted some specific measures for immediate implementation to stop exploitation of customs and banking loopholes in the import procedure for money laundering.
In case of food imports, the meeting decided to make post-landing inspection compulsory to make sure the food meets the internationally used Harmonised System Code, meeting sources said.
"Presently, importers open letters of credit to import expensive fine rice, but bring in cheap and
coarse rice. A substantial amount of foreign exchange is being siphoned off thus and there is no scope now to detect these forgeries," explained Saifur to the press, coming out of the meeting held at the finance ministry.
In case of importing goods through the land ports, any letter of credit (LC) worth over $5,000 now has to be sent to the advising bank through SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication). The meeting urged the authorities concerned to take immediate steps to develop infrastructure for such speedy telecommunication services.
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According to another decision of the meeting, import duties from now on have to be paid through pay orders, demand drafts or treasury chalans.
The decisions followed threadbare discussions on a report tabled by a high-powered committee formed earlier with Bangladesh Bank (BB) Deputy Governor Mohammad A Rumee Ali in the chair. The other committee members are the managing directors of Sonali Bank, Janata Bank, Agrani Bank, National Bank, United Commercial Bank and Southeast Bank, BB executive director and deputy general manager, and National Board of Revenue (NBR) second secretary (tax).
Apart from the committee members, BB Governor Dr Salahuddin Ahmed, Finance Secretary Siddiqur Rahman Chowdhury and NBR Chairman Khairuzzaman were present at the meeting.
The meeting also decided to speed up the enactment of the draft Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Law crafted by the BB and submitted to the finance ministry in October for scrutiny.
The draft law, which will replace the existing Anti-Money Laundering Act, provides for setting up a separate Financial Crime Investigation and Prosecution Office and taking foreign assistance to clamp down on financial crimes and terrorist financing. It clearly defines terrorist acts and prescribes harsh punishments including life imprisonment and death for such crimes.
The new law has been penned at the suggestion of the USA in the wake of 9/11 and in the context of the worldwide rise in terrorist activities to prevent and crush money laundering and
funding terrorism and militancy.
"Militant activities can be controlled if money laundering is checked, as it is feeding these groups. But the existing Anti-Money Laundering Act is not enough to address this new phenomenon," Saifur told the press.
When the Anti-Money Laundering Act was enacted, he said, nobody anticipated such destructive activities carried out recently by the militants, adding, "Terrorist acts are happening very fast, but we are falling behind, being unable to keep pace with them."
The committee headed by Rumee Ali was tasked with identifying weaknesses of the existing systems and finding ways to stop money laundering. After field investigations and scrutinising the nitty-gritty of the existing systems, the committee prepared a list of documents being used in theimport procedure.
From its discussions with the dealer banks and the land port authorities, the committee identified 13 weaknesses in the banking system and eight flaws in the customs.
In yesterday's report, the committee put forward a 19-point short-term set of measures and some six longterm steps to stop forgery in import procedure and moneylaundering.