The budget for fiscal 2020-21 has proposed to impose 50 per cent penalty on misdeclaration of exports, imports and investment in foreign countries. This seems to be a sound proposal from the revenue point of view. Global Financial Integrity report ranks Bangladesh as one of the top countries facing trade-based money laundering (TBML), which is a significant threat to growth and sustainable development. This is because there is a rapid expansion of international trade. According to a report of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), some $3.1 billion, or Tk 26,400 crore, is being illegally remitted from Bangladesh a year. This syphoning of money is depriving the government exchequer of about Tk 12,000 crore as revenue a year. Now the pertinent questions are: what is misdeclaration and how to impose a penalty on misdeclaration?
The budget for fiscal 2020-21 has proposed to impose 50 per cent penalty on misdeclaration of exports, imports and investment in foreign countries. This seems to be a sound proposal from the revenue point of view. Global Financial Integrity report ranks Bangladesh as one of the top countries facing trade-based money laundering (TBML), which is a significant threat to growth and sustainable development. This is because there is a rapid expansion of international trade. According to a report of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), some $3.1 billion, or Tk 26,400 crore, is being illegally remitted from Bangladesh a year. This syphoning of money is depriving the government exchequer of about Tk 12,000 crore as revenue a year. Now the pertinent questions are: what is misdeclaration and how to impose a penalty on misdeclaration?
