Reform needed in banking sector to prevent money laundering: NGOs

Reforms in the banking sector is needed to stop money laundering, according tospeakers at a virtual press conference yesterday.

They also said the strategy to collect revenue in the proposed budget is traditional and steps to help people struggling to survive amid the pandemic are inadequate.  

Equity BD, an alliance of several NGOs and CSOs, organised the event.

Presenting the keynote paper, Ahsanul Karim, a member of Equity BD, said the government has proposed to collect Tk 3,30,000 crore revenue through NBR and extended the purview of taxes to rural areas.

"Due to the ongoing pandemic, income of many middle, lower-middle, and lower-group people has decreased but their livelihood expenditure increased. However, there is no plan or strategy to address that," he said.

The government should withdraw or lessen the pressure of vat from the daily essentials considering their situation, he added.

Campaign for Good Governance Chairperson Abdul Awal said the budget plan and development plan are not reaching to the ultra-poor properly.

"In the budget, the rich involved with money laundering and tax evasion usually get the benefit. Therefore, steps should be taken to stop tax evasion first," he added.

Equity BD chief moderator Rezaul Karim Chowdhury said this proposed budget does not specifically say anything about steps against money laundering. "If money laundering could be stopped, it could have been one of the sources to collect revenue," he added.

Syed Aminul Haque of Coast Trust and Coastal Livelihood and Environment Action Network chief facilitator Mehedi Hasan also spoke at the event.