Provisions to legitimise black money officially revoked

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has officially cancelled the options to legitimise black money within just two months after it took effect. The NBR approved a proposal in this regard on Monday.

The recently ousted Sheikh Hasina government opened an option for one year to legitimise black money through cash investment or by purchasing immovable assets including flats and plots with a tax much lower than the highest tax rate.

The provision drew widespread criticisms from different quarters. A large section of the economists and analysts termed this as injustice to honest tax payers.

However, after taking over, the interim government, led by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, decided to revoke the provision during a meeting of the advisory council meeting last week.

As part of this, the NBR officially revoked the option to legitimise black money today.

The then finance minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali proposed this provision in his budget speech for the 2024-25 fiscal.

The option was supposed to be in effect for a year, from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025.

There were options to legitimise money earned from bribery and corruption or undeclared sources by paying a 15 per cent tax against it.

Besides, there were also options to whiten black money through purchasing flats or plots. The tax rate under this provision varied depending on the area.

Although the government opened such options year after year, there was not that much response.

NBR sources say around Tk 470 billion have been legitimised under this provision so far. However, there was no such option during the BNP-rule from 1991 to 1996.

Lastly, in the 2022-23 fiscal, the government created an option to bring back laundered money. But nobody took that chance.

A year after that, the government opened the option to whiten black money again.