Mercedes worth $100,000 imported for $20,000: Governor

Money has been laundered in the guise of import-export by making false declaration, Bangladesh Bank governor Abdur Rouf Talukder has said again.

While presenting a picture of imports in the last several months, he said letters of credit (LCs) have been opened at low prices for high price products and the remaining money has been laundered.    

In the inauguration of a three-day development conference of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) on Thursday, Abdur Rouf Talkukder delivered some examples of false declaration for importing commodities.

He said a LC of 20,000 dollars has been opened to import Mercedes-Benz which actually costs 100,000 dollars. The remaining money has been laundered.

Over invoice (showing higher import costs) has been done in different imported commodities from 20 to 200 per cent. Such astonishing 100 LCs have been stopped in July last.

The BIDS’ conference is being held at Lakeshore Hotel in the city. Planning minister MA Mannan was present as the chief guest in the inaugural session presided over by Binayak Sen. Policy Research Institute’s (PRI) vice chairman Sadiq Ahmed presented the keynote paper.

The BB governor thinks ‘trade-based money laundering' can be stopped if imports through over-invoicing and under-invoicing can be curbed.

Abdur Rauf Talukder said there is no bar on import. Everyone can import if they open letters of credit with actual prices. Government in no way curbing import, he said adding that duty have been increased in only 30-35 luxury items. LC margin has been increased in those luxury items.

On the dollar price hike, Abdur Rouf Talukder said, “The exchange rate of foreign currencies should be based on the market. That’s why the price has been left to the market. As a result, dollar is now available at Tk 110 and the price is Tk 103-104 at the import level. The rate was much higher several months ago. Now the dollar market is being stabilized slowly.” 

Washington-based research institute Global Financial Integrity (GFI) in a report on money laundering last December said USD 49.65 billion was siphoned off Bangladesh from 2009 to 2014 through trade misinvoicing.  Every year Tk 750 billion are laundered this way.

The GFI said price discrepancy exists in 17.3 per cent cases of Bangladesh's trade with all its trading partners.