THE National Board of Revenue has been trying to give legal sanction to the undisclosed income of former prime minister Khaleda Zia and former finance minister Saifur Rahman. There arises the very pertinent question of how two such individuals have evaded paying taxes and are now being let off through a special device. A head of government is especially considered to be the repository of public trust and embodies the highest principles of legality as well as morality. Sadly, though, now that Khaleda Zia has proved that she has not been paying her taxes regularly causes a fresh new dent in her reputation as a public leader. As for Saifur Rahman, in his years as finance minister, he constantly berated everyone who he thought was not paying taxes. Now that it turns out he himself has been evading paying taxes, how does he defend his position?

The fact that Begum Zia and Saifur Rahman have been caught not paying taxes on their undisclosed income raises other disquieting questions. One of them is that during their time they made provisions in the law for black money to be turned into white, but curiously enough there is a gap in their tax records. Was that because of a feeling that the law would not catch up with them? Again, in civilised societies it has always been the norm for public figures caught violating the law, in any sense, to resign through an acknowledgement of their mistakes. In the case of the former prime minister and her finance minister, no such moral compunctions seem to have worked. It was one more sign of the culture of impunity which they and their friends applied to the way they ran the country. Such behaviour on the part of these two individuals remains, to our deep regret, a ringing commentary on the quality of our national leadership.

Finally, it is now for the NBR to clarify its position regarding the opportunity given to Khaleda Zia and Saifur Rahman to have their undeclared income regularised through a payment of taxes, when their wealth statements have been sought to be put under scrutiny. To what extent the NBR has taken a correct step, especially after the issuance of a June 4 circular categorising people not entitled to the concession of regularising their undeclared income on payment of taxes, needs to be explained to the country. Finally, let the NBR make the details of their wealth statements public.