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Society banking faces restriction

Seven-year jail for illegal operation; draft of amendment to cooperative act approved

Staff Correspondent
The cabinet yesterday approved the final draft of the Cooperative Society (amendment) Act 2012 that prohibits cooperative societies from running any credit programme among their members.
The draft law also bans receiving deposit or subscription from those who are not members of the cooperative.
Also, it has provisions for maximum
seven years' imprisonment and a fine of Tk 10 lakh for doing banking without approval from the Bangladesh Bank.
"The highest penalty for breaching the law in the past was only one year," Cabinet Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told journalists after the cabinet meeting at the secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
The fine has been raised to Tk 10 lakh from Tk 5,000 only, he added.
“Any cooperative society intending to do banking must obtain prior permission of the Bangladesh Bank," the cabinet secretary said, citing the draft law.
The draft came amid allegations that some multilevel marketing companies like Destiny-2000 Ltd that has a cooperative wing are running illegal banking business and collecting money through fraudulence. However, the cooperative act does not directly deal with MLM companies.
The issue of the Destiny Group and its cooperative came up in the cabinet meeting for discussion. The commerce ministry is looking into the matter, said MosharrafHossain.
After the draft is made into law, no cooperative would use terminologies such as "bank", "investment" or "commerce" with its name, and open no branch anywhere in the country.
The branches of the existing cooperative societies will have to be closed down within six months of the passage of the law.
As the Directorate of Local Government and Cooperatives placed the draft at yesterday's cabinet meet, a number of ministers raised various malpractices by Destiny Group and other cooperative societies that are involved in illegal banking operations.
“The amendment will check the malpractice," a minister told The Daily Star after the meeting.
Asked if the draft was prepared for stopping unauthorised banking by MLM companies, the cabinet secretary said a proposal to amend the cooperative law was placed in the cabinet in March last year.
“The cabinet then formed a committee with prime minister's finance adviser in the chair to finalise the draft to amend the law,” he said, adding that the draft will be
placed at the Jatiya Sangsad after vetting from the law ministry.
The draft also renamed the office of the chief of the Department of Cooperatives from "Registrar" to "Director General". The director general will have powers to register cooperative societies.
USING SEISMIC DATA
The cabinet also approved a proposal for using seismic data on the Bay of Bengal collected recently for legal fight with Myanmar in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
Petrobangla has been authorised to preserve the data, maintain its secrecy and give permission to use those for academic purpose.
“The data will also be used for exploring mineral resources in the Bay of Bengal,” said Mosharraf Hossain, adding, Petrobangla will ensure that the data are not misused.
He said the seismic information can also be sold to multi-national companies.