After a parliamentary body found money being laundered in the name of importing betel nut, the government has decided to ban import of the product.
The illegal transfer of huge amounts of money out of the country through betel nut import was revealed by the parliamentary standing committee on commerce, said a senior commerce ministry official.
He said commerce minister GM Quader has already given consent to impose a ban on the import of betel nuts.
“In this regard, a gazette-notification may be issued this week and will be sent to customs offices across the country,” the official added.
The betel nut exporters hailed the decision saying the government should strictly monitor trading of the product as money launderers are active to misuse the export-import business.
“The government needs to be strict in monitoring so the unscrupulous traders cannot launder the country’s money,” Kabir Ahmed, a betel nut exporter, told Dhaka Tribune.
In October last, the parliamentary committee found that betel nuts were being imported at prices higher than their export rates.
The committee report suggests that a group of eight traders import betel nuts and export them again at rates lower than their import prices. It raises concerns among the authorities that money is being laundered under the name betel nuts imports.
In 2011-12 fiscal year, betel nuts were imported at Tk64,228 per tonne, but the export rate of the same quality betel nuts was
Tk54,640 per tonne. It indicates that the import price of a tonne of betel nut was Tk7,588 higher than the export rate of the same quality product.
“The eight local businessmen have helped the Indian traders to import betel nut from Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia at lower tariff as India charged higher duty on the product,” alleged Awami League’s law maker MA Latif.
He said the Indian businessmen stay in Bangladesh to import betel nuts and export the same items without any value addition to India.
The parliamentary standing committee informed the National Board of Revenue of the matter in order to take necessary measures, the committee sources said.
In 2011-2012 fiscal year, a 96 companies imported 36,471 tonnes of betel nut at Tk2.06bn. During the same fiscal, 13 companies exported 6,742 tonnes of betel nut earning Tk380m.
Out of total betel nut exports at 50,000 tonnes during fiscal 2010-11, around 33,000 tonnes of the product were exported to India, doubling the amount of the previous year.
The betel nut export figure of last fiscal is yet to be disclosed, but the traders presume that it might exceed the amount of previous fiscal.
With the production of nearly 250,000 tonnes of dried betel nut annually, Bangladesh has become the fourth largest grower in the world after Myanmar (producing some 300,000 tonnes) the sources concerned said.
India is the largest producer of betel nut, yielding half of the world’s total 1.5m tonnes, followed by China, that produces around 25% of world's total production, the sources said.
Bangladesh mainly exports betel nut to India, Vietnam, Britain and Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, the Department of Agricultural Extension has introduced a separate wing to monitor the sector for augmenting production of betel leaf and betel nut across the country.