The government is going to take tougher action against money laundering as 15 new proposed laws are being enacted and announced soon in this regard.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal made the disclosure in a virtual press briefing after a meeting of the cabinet committee on public purchase on Wednesday.
He said, “Money laundering will be reduced to a great extent when the laws (15 new), including new and amended, come into force.”
The proposed laws will get approval by the parliament in the next six months, he expected.
The Finance Minister said, “We need to know why money is being smuggled. The system needs to know why this is happening. Before that you need to know who is doing it. We will try to prevent it digitally. Before that, I will create opportunities to stop money laundering.”
The Minister also said, “We get upset just like the common people when the issue of money laundering comes in public.”
“My heart bleeds the same way as yours for money laundering,” he added.
“There were two reasons for this,” he said adding, “One reason may be that there is no investment system in the country for them.”
“We will make arrangements for investment opportunities in the country. If they can give any benefit to the country, money laundering will also decrease,” he mentioned.
“Another reason may be their characteristic of money laundering,” he said adding, “We will also digitally track them and bring them into the system and take action in the legal process.”
“Many prominent money launderers have already been jailed. Legal procedures are going on against them,” he mentioned.
“If we can create a better investment environment, then those people will invest here instead of sending the money abroad,” he said.
Speaking in Parliament on June 7, the minister had mentioned that there was a time when sand used to be imported in the name of cement and one product used to be brought in the name of another product. Now under-invoicing and over-invoicing are hardly done. But I don’t say such things have stopped completely. We hardly see these things in the newspapers anymore.
At the briefing, journalists also raised questions whether parliamentarians have any participation while passing any bill in the parliament other than saying 'yes' and 'no'.
The finance minister said the parliamentarians are supposed to say 'yes' or 'no' at the time of passing any bill. This is the rule.
“It's not true that they can't discuss issues related to any bill when it's placed in the parliament. They get time to discuss and they also give their feedback,” he added.
Responding to a question, Mustafa Kamal said that Bangladesh will consider lending from its foreign exchange reserves to neighbouring countries if the returns in this regard are good.
