Corruption, money laundering has made the economy 'toothless'

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said that the present government has not only completely destroyed the country's politics, but the economy too. He said, the government's extreme mismanagement in the banking sector, limitless corruption and money laundering have rendered the country's economy 'toothless'.

Speaking at a press briefing today, Friday, the BNP secretary general said, "According to media reports and from various reliable sources, it is learnt that from 2009 till yesterday (12 October 2023), around Tk 900 billion (Tk 90,000 crore) has been looted, absolutely looted."

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was addressing a press briefing today, Friday, at 11:00 am, at the officer of the party chairperson in Gulshan of the capital.

It was alleged at the press briefing that during the stretch of Awami League rule over the past 15 years, there had been extreme mismanagement in the financial sector, including corruption in the banking sector, money laundering, amassing wealth overseas and more.

Addressing the press briefing, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, "This illegitimate government has not only destroyed politics, but has completely destroyed the economy too, resorting to lies. They have cheated the people. They have cheated not just the people, but international agencies too. They have spun a narrative to make Bangladesh a role model for development among third world countries."

In support of his statement, Mirza Fakhrul elaborated, "This is not just my contention, the institutions dealing with economic issues, who carry out research and studies, say this is all hollow. The people are being fooled."

Saying that there is no investment in the country, the BNP secretary general said, "There people (those in power) have no new investment here. No new employment has been created. As a result, the poor remain poor and the disparity in people's incomes is steadily widening. CPD has said that there are two societies that have been created here... one is the very wealthy who go abroad, wear costly clothes, driver expensive cars like BMWs and Mercedes. Yet in this very Gulshan you will see at the traffic signals, so many people begging, hands outstretched. They cannot manage their daily meals. That is reality."

Mirza Fakhrul said, one of the main conditions to the rule of law and overall discipline in the country including the financial sector, is accountability. As the present fascist Awami League government has no accountability to the people, this country's economy, politics, culture, judiciary, nothing is safe in their hands.

Loan scams in banking sector

Mirza Fakhrul said, the country's economy cannot stand up straight due to unprecedented corruption and irregularities in the banking sector. Basically it is the government's policies, political weakness and personal interests and overarching looting that is steadily destroying the economy's life force.

Citing examples of loan scams in the banking sector, the BNP secretary general said, "The biggest loan scam in the history of Bangladesh's banking sector took place recently in Islami Bank. An industrial group, under various identities and in the names of non-existent companies took Tk 300 billion (Tk 30,000 crore) from just Islami Bank alone. Yet the group qualifies to take a maximum Tk 2.15 billion (Tk 215 crore) in loans. The media reports it has laundered one billion dollars overseas."

The BNP leader went on to say that a Bangladeshi economist had commented that if you had the connections and the power, it was now most easy to loot money from the banks in the name of loans. An economist had termed those who amassed wealth abroad by means of corruption and capital flight, as national enemies. They abuse the banking system, taking loans, not bothering to return these over the years and continue to siphon this off overseas. As 'deliberate loan defaulters' of the banks, they play the role of loan looters. Using their political identity, the loot billions of taka and are now in the process of fleeing abroad.

Mirza Fakhrul said, in July last year LCs of USD 6.35 billion were opened in the banks in Bangladesh for import of goods, but this July the banks could open LCs of only USD 4.37 billion. According to these calculations, in the first month of the financial year, opening of LCs in the banks fell by over 31 per cent. In other words, the country's economy is crawling along at an unprecedented slow pace.

Mirza Fakhrul said that the government and its unlawful beneficiaries had made the country into a haven of corruption. He said, "They had laundered huge sums of money through corruption and are continuing to do so. According to the Washington-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI), wealth is being siphoned out of the country by means of misinvoicing the price of import and export products. From 2009 till 2018 Bangladesh had lost USD 8.27 billion on average every year in this manner. In 9 years Bangladesh had thus lost USD 74 billion dollars by means of money laundering."

The BNP secretary general said that GFI has stated in 2015 that every year USD 7.54 billion on average was illegally transferred out of Bangladesh. On 11 September last year, various newspapers of the country, quoting CID, said that by means of 'hundi' alone, Tk 750 billion (Tk 75,000 crore) was laundered out of the country on average every year. He said, "To hundi, if you add such problems as over-invoicing, under-invoicing, and not bringing import revenue back to the country, Bangladesh is actually being deprived of foreign exchange equivalent to Tk 1,500 billion (Tk 1.5 lakh crore) on average every year. That means there is a capital flight of at least USD 15 billion to 16 billion from Bangladesh annually. If this massive outflow of money could be halted, Bangladesh's average growth would increase by at least 2 per cent."

The BNP secretary general also highlighted data that appeared in the media concerning Tk 14 billion (Tk 1400 crore) being laundered in the guise of exports and corruption involving USD 7 billion under cover of EDF.

Mirza Fakhrul said, the manner in which the three top global rating agencies, known as the Big Three, had downgraded Bangladesh's credit rating and had given negative signals, indicated that Bangladesh's economy was in an alarming state. In May this year, the global rating agency Moody's downgraded Bangladesh's credit rating from Ba3 to B1. While all countries make an effort to attain good ratings, this downgrade over the past decade or so is a dire warning for Bangladesh.

Highlighting Bangladesh's unprecedented liquidity crisis, the BNP secretary general said many of the banks in the country were now having to borrow because of the extended liquidity crisis. A report of Bangladesh bank said that surplus liquidity in the banking sector had fallen to Tk 39.09 billion (Tk 3909 crore). Even a year ago this was Tk 2034.35 billion (Tk 2,03,435 crore).

He also commented that there was a capital deficit and that the depositors were at risk due to the liquidity crisis.

Also present during the press briefing were BNP's vice chairman Barkatullah Bulu, member of the chairperson's advisory council Ismail Jabiullah, joint secretary general Khairul Kabir and executive committee member Nazim Uddin Alam.