Govt is planning amnesty for bringing smuggled money back: Minister

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said the government is planning to announce amnesty for bringing the laundered money back into the country.

He said different countries are announcing amnesty like tax exemption. “We’re also thinking so”.

The minister came up with the information after attending two consecutive meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) and Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Thursday.

Bangladesh Bank will make more announcements in this regard before the national budget is placed in Parliament, the minister said.

He said the issue of amnesty will be reflected in the national budget, he added.

"The initiative will be taken by the Bangladesh Bank and announced by it through circulars. But we don’t want to make any announcement in this regard before placing the national budget in parliament,” he said.

He, however, did not give any detail of the amount as to how much money was laundered. “I can’t give you any idea how much money was laundered. But we collect information from the media and other official and non-official sources”, he said.

The finance minister said he believes that the people who laundered money will take advantage of the government’s amnesty as it is a good scope for them.